The board also named Colleen Locke its new president, Ron Briggs its vice president and welcomed new member Don Mellor at its July 15 meeting. Mellor was elected to fill the seat vacated by former board President Dan Cash, who opted not to run for reelection.

“Our big driver of change this year is the code of conduct,” district Superintendent Tim Seymour said at the meeting.

The district reviews its code of conduct yearly, as required by law, and any changes require a public hearing with 30 days’ notice. LPCSD’s code of conduct hearing is set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

Current district policy prohibits cellphones and other personal devices at the elementary school. Middle school students can bring them to school, but must keep them in their locker during the school day. High school students can have devices on their person and use them in between classes and at lunch, but not during classes unless teachers allow it.

The board’s new proposed policy would hold high school students to the same policy as middle school students. They would need to keep their devices in their lockers from the first bell at 8:15 a.m. to the end of the school day. The proposed policy also defines cellphones as an “electronic backpack,” meaning that they can be “subject to a search by administration when there is a reasonable suspicion of a Code of Conduct violation,” in the same way students’ real backpacks can be subject to a search.

While the board is mulling banning personal electronic devices, they do not shy away from technology, Seymour said. Faculty are receiving training on AI, and once they are comfortable using the technology, proper AI usage will be taught to students and integrated into classroom settings.

“There are concerns related to anxiety and smartphone use and things of that nature. So, from afar, people could look and say, ‘Well, you know, is the district being a bit Luddite-ish?'” Seymour said. “It’s really just a matter of priorities and balance. It’s an interesting dichotomy that we’re in, but it’s good that we’re trying to forge a path that bridges the gap between technology that can be useful and technology that can be damaging.”

Frank Brunner, a Lake Placid High School teacher who said he was speaking in his capacity as a parent of LPCSD students, questioned the board’s cellphone plan at the meeting.

“I want to make sure that we’re not panicking and we’re not running into something that we don’t understand,” Brunner said.

Brunner said that the research he’s read — which he provided to board members in a report — does not indicate adolescent cellphone use has caused a spike in suicide rates or poor mental health.

“Don’t just fall into the trap of looking at pop magazines and what’s in the headlines and what some — what’s the current fad. This wouldn’t be unusual, right? For education to fall into things that are fads,” he said.

“There are huge incentives for people to panic,” Brunner added. “There are tons of incentives for teachers, for administrators. It would make it really easy if we just said, ‘Sure, we’re banning all cellphones.’ That would be super easy. But it’s not right. … Our vision statement is not ‘easier, simpler, smoother.’ That’s not our vision. Our vision is ‘united, empowered, engaged.'”

Brunner urged the board to talk to students in the district about their thoughts on the proposed cellphone policy and “look at the big picture.”

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Dress code

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The board also proposed a few alterations to the school dress code.

“There has been a greater gravitation amongst some of our older students to wear short shorts,” Seymour said. “So, we’re adding additional language to the dress code about the need to have one’s posterior completely covered. There was much thought into how to indicate that language.”

The new dress code requirement reads: “Ensure that clothing will cover all private body parts. Shorts, skirts and skorts need to provide complete coverage of a student’s posterior.”

Other proposed changes will require students who violate the dress code to change into different clothing before returning to class, but requires that faculty “be discreet and respectful when notifying students of dress code violations.” It also requires that the schools keep extra clothes on hand for students who violate the dress code “so that (students) will not miss classroom instruction while waiting for parents to bring a change of clothing,” though, when necessary, parents may be asked to bring appropriate clothing.

A final proposed change to the dress code allows LPCSD officials to tweak the dress code as needed throughout the year as “new fads and mode of dress are (determined) disruptive to a safe and orderly learning environment.”

The school board last made changes to the dress code in April 2022, voting 6-1 to allow high school students to wear hats during the school day, as well as altering language that required tops to be able to be tucked into bottoms. Those changes also stated that visible bra straps no longer violated the dress code policy. Locke, the new board president, was the lone “no” vote in 2022.

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Academic honesty

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A third proposed policy change will crack down on plagiarism, cheating and dishonest use of AI in classrooms.

“Students caught cheating on an examination or plagiarizing … will receive zero on their examination or project and be referred for disciplinary action,” the new policy reads in part.

Submitting content “generated exclusively by artificial intelligence” will be considered plagiarism. Students must indicate work that’s been altered or edited through generative AI tools on the assignment in question, including a description of how AI aided their completion of the assignment.

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Summer enrichment camps

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The district’s summer enrichment camps, which started a few years ago when LPCSD began its community school programming, are set to continue this summer, with a few new additions.

A new STEM camp for first- and second-grade students will be led this summer by LPES third-grade teacher Patricia Damp.

“We’re excited to see the kids get their hands on some machine building, some robotics, at a pretty early age,” Seymour said.

Another new camp will continue the district’s adaptive skating program through the summer, in partnership with the state Olympic Regional Development Authority.

The district’s other camps will return this summer: a kindergarten preparation camp, a robotics camp for middle school students and a sports camp for students in third through fifth grade.

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Curriculum, staffing shifts

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Some staffing shifts will happen in the district over the summer in response to differing class sizes, with fifth-grade teacher Alexa Bowler shifting to kindergarten at LPES.

The staffing rearrangements are “ensuring that, not only are we being fiscally responsible and staffing classes at a reasonable number, but no one wants to have a class with such a small number of kids that there can’t be true collaborative dialogue,” Seymour said.

LPHS teacher Brenden Gotham is in the process of getting certified to teach driver’s education to high school students, Seymour said.

Results of LPHS students’ Regents exams are in, and Seymour said that they provided some insight into the ways LPCSD’s classes are shifting. The Class of 2024 was the smallest class the high school had in years and was “particularly trades-driven,” Seymour said. The amount of graduates planning to attend a two-year college has increased. District students’ grades on the exams were exemplary and indicated that students are ready to be challenged, Seymour said.

“We continue to have very robust performances and proficiency on all of our Regents exams,” he said.

Seymour added that he’d like to “push for greater rigor” at LPCSD and talk with some recent graduates to “see what level of preparation they felt they had when they went to college” to see how the district can better serve its students.