Cadott School Board - Technology is here, but there have to be boundaries

By Ginna Young

Unless they’ve already instituted a strict cell phone policy, many school districts face the same challenge Cadott is right now. A change in cell phone policy in the student handbook was discussed at the board of education meeting Dec. 9.

“Even as hard as I’ve been trying to enforce it, there’s still been some hiccups in the classrooms,” said Machler.

One of those hiccups is inconsistency over how teachers are handling the matter. Machler sent staff a survey, with options to leave the policy as it is, where teachers monitor “no phones in class,” an across the board “no phones at any time” or look into locked pouches.

Many schools are now requiring students to lock their phones in secure pouches, but the survey results revealed the majority of the teachers want to ban phones at all times.

As people are coming to realize, increased phone use leads to cheating, harassing behavior and other downfalls. Therefore, the phones will only be allowed at lockers, before and after school, and lunch.

“If a parent needs to get ahold of them, the longest they would ever have to wait, is 44 minutes, which is a class period, before students would see their phone,” said Machler.

Rod Tegels, board member, questioned what actions will be taken if teachers don’t enforce the policy.

“I’m 100 percent willing to hold my teachers accountable for it,” said Machler, adding that staff also needs to be device-free during instructional times.

Board president Cory LaNou also wanted the policy language to include to smart devices, while board member Kevin Roshell asked if a Chromebook is considered a smart device. LaNou said there will, of course, be exceptions, so the policy change was approved.

There have been no phone calls from parents objecting to the policy, so district administrator Josh Spaeth feels the move is a good one for Cadott.

“I think they’re seeing the benefits of not having the phones,” said Spaeth. “Kids are addicted to them, adults are addicted to them. We’re open and honest about what we’re fighting every day.” Also discussed, was that Cadott has been approached about joining a gymnastics coop already in place between Bloomer and Colfax. Cadott has a lot of young students interested in that sport and the one-year agreement would be for 2025-26. Because Cadott doesn’t have the space to have practices and would need to put anchors in gym floors, the six high school students interested would practice at one of the other districts.

“So, they have that set with the WIAA,” said athletic director Zach Sirny.

Currently, many parents feel they will open enroll out, in order to give their child the chance to compete in gymnastics. Sirny says a co-op with a larger district close to home is not an option, because the bigger schools don’t need to co-op to field a team.

When a child leaves Cadott, the district loses about $4,000, per child.

“You’re in the hole quite a bit, by not creating opportunities for kids,” said Spaeth.

The co-op is for girls or boys, where the athletes compete as a team and individually, with the costs of about $3,000, if Cadott hires a coach to mainly transport the kids.

Casey Yeager, board member, asked how the kids would make it to practice on time, since it’s a bit of a drive at the end of the school day.

“How does that timeline work?” she asked, to which Sirny says the other schools would wait for Cadott to arrive.

Sirny did point out that having this co-op could negatively impact the other sports programs, as it may pull athletes from the other teams.

“I’m just showing you both sides,” said Sirny.

The board agreed on the approval of the co-op, but did wait to decide on whether to hire a coach or not.

“There are going to be some pretty happy families that will go and be in that co-op,” said Spaeth. “I believe we’ll have State gymnastics qualifiers next year.”