On Feb. 25, JCPS held its second board meeting of the year. The meeting consisted of addressing various topics, anywhere from a cell phone ban to the JCPS calendar. 

The meeting first addressed research on school start times, arguing for later times, especially for older students. Marty Pollio claimed that it would not impact next year’s start times, but the board will make a decision for the 2026-2027 school year around October. 

Dr. Dena Dossett, Chief of Data Management, Planning, and Program Evaluation for JCPS and Cheng Fisher, an evaluation specialist, came forward to present the research of school start times. They claimed that although start times wouldn’t guarantee that students get more sleep, studies have shown that it would reduce car crashes among teens, disciplinary referrals, late arrivals and improve academic success. 

In the past three years, JCPS has changed their start times twice. Pollio reflected that the bus driver shortage deeply affected the changing of start times, taking away the original two start times. 

“Are we perfect? No. Are we on the right track? Yes,” Fisher said. 

In schools that had a later start time over the course of a semester in JCPS, there was no overall change in chronic absenteeism and disciplinary referrals. 

The next topic discussed was whether to ban cell phones in schools. Jonathan Lowe, an executive administrator in the JCPS Policy & Systems department, and Robert Moore, the JCPS Chief of Schools, explained the background of the possible law. There is a state law, KRS 158.165, that every school district should have a policy on cell phones. Currently in JCPS, students should not use cell phones during the instructional day.  Policy 09.4261 states “students shall not use/ activate and/or display a personal telecommunication device on school property during the course of the instructional day.”

Nationwide, 68% of adults support a ban on cell phones during class and 36% of adults want to ban cell phones from school entirely, according to the statistics discussed by Lowe and Moore It has been proven that cell phones can negatively impact students, such as their mental health, attention span and cause bullying. Currently, Fern Creek, Doss and Seneca have cell phone bans or restrictions due to these factors. 

Rebecca Nicolas, Principal of Fern Creek, explained how her school developed the phone ban. 

“Even my very very best teachers couldn’t hold their attention anymore. And that’s when it became an issue[…] and we decided we needed to act,” Nicolas said. Fern Creek purchased Yondr Pouches that hold the student’s phone and cannot be opened without a strong magnet. 

They surveyed parents, stakeholders and community, as well allowing student voice and opinion. Nicolas organized a parent meeting that allowed parents to come in and view the pouches. She also asked first responders in the area about safety with phones in an emergency. Their response was that in an emergency, the best thing to do is to not allow students to have their phones. All of this eased the parent’s minds of their children not having their phones available. 

“We promise you they’re safer this way,” Nicolas said, calming parents’ fears.

The students are only allowed to have cell phones at the end of the day, but are allowed to keep their smart watches, unless they become an issue. Students may visit the office if they need to make a call or text and they made adjustments for students with accommodations, allowing them to have access to their phone. Additionally, if students need to use their cell phones for instruction, they are allowed to do so, the teacher just needs to let the office know beforehand. 

The phone ban was a success. In a survey in January, 44% of their students believed they have been learning more without their phones and had more books checked out from the library than ever before. 

President of the JCPS Teacher Association, Maddie Shepard, discussed the teacher perspective. In a survey conducted in JCPS, more than 80% of teachers believed that cell phones were harmful to students in a learning environment and 80% of teachers said that they almost never or only once in a while use cell phones for instructional purposes. 

Pollio stated that if the phone ban were to be implemented, bad behavior will increase, so that will also have to be taken into consideration. He believes that the ban might have to be altered several times if enacted. He also heavily discouraged confiscation of cell phones. 

“It is difficult and challenging for schools to deal with this issue [of cellphones] now, and it will be in the future as well,” Pollio said.

Many of the other district heads seemed in favor of Yonder Pouches or some sort of phone ban. This ban will still need to be planned and thought out more and will not be implemented this school year. 

They then discussed the superintendent search results. They had over 4500 responses. Over half of respondents were parents and less than half were JCPS staff members, with a small percentage being community members and students. Respondents prioritized the abilities to  promote the academic achievement and emotional wellbeing of students, improve results in lower-performing schools, lead a team, recruit and retain staff, focus on student behavior in the classroom and improve JCPS transportation and facilities in the new superintendent. 

Dr. Dosset, Robert Moore and others whose names were not addressed gave a student focused governance update. This also included addressing the recommendation to receive a monitoring report on interim metrics for Guardrail 3, or high school academic readiness. This would allow the board to be able to look at the association between the “guardrails” of the community, or the communities values, and current performance of JCPS policies. 

Guardrail 3 means that JCPS will not make an important decision without the input of the individuals it will be affecting. Guardrail 3.1 focuses on the perceptions of teacher voice and leadership. The experts gave teachers a survey with 70 questions, asking them if they feel that they are given leadership opportunities and input in their building. 

Guardrail 3.2 focuses on parent and staff communication that allows constant contact between the two. This is done through newsletters with a 56% open rate for parents and a 46% open rate for staff, which has increased significantly over the years. 

Guardrail 3.3 is the collaborative district and school leadership team. The goal of this guardrail is to have all collaborative teams in JCPS identify a problem of practice by June 2027. This is currently on track with 149 schools currently having established a Collaborative Leadership Team. 

Sophia Randall, a junior at Eastern High School, addressed the board about why JCPS shouldn’t remove funding to the Japanese teaching position at Eastern. She urged them to fund the program in order to keep it. 

Another speaker, the Japanese teacher at Eastern High School. She addressed that her Japanese classes had low enrollment, but it is vital that the program continue. In the class, students are given a unique learning opportunity and if it were to end, they would have to start all over in another language to meet their language requirements to graduate. She brought a petition that over 200 students and families signed, requesting that the school board give the program funding for one more position. But, the decision was made by the Eastern High School Principal and SBDM and the JCPS Board cannot interfere with the decision. 

Daniella Garcia Vosolo also spoke on behalf of eliminating inclusive clubs for people of different ethnicities, urging JCPS to not remove them.

The board then addressed the recommendation to purchase approximately 13.0176 acres at 5127 Terry Road and approximately 3.9852 acres located at 5500 Terry Road. In total this would cost 1,080,000 dollars and would be used to build a school for Grace M. James Academy of Excellence. 

District 3 Board Member, James Craig, brought up forgiving the missed days of school due to snow.

“I generally oppose forgiving these days, even if it means that we’re in school in June,” Craig said. However, the JCPS calendar includes five extra days of school that is beyond the state requirement, so that is why JCPS can easily forgive missed days.