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Chisago Lakes High School will be following the lead of Chisago Lakes middle school and banning the use of cell phones by students in the classroom setting after a unanimous vote at the regular school board meeting on Thursday, April 18. 

Chisago Lakes Middle School instituted a no cell phone policy throughout the whole school day last year, and the district concluded that went well. With that plan working out, High School Principal Tammy Yackley began the exploratory process of seeing how parents and teachers felt at the high school level.

She said the school sent out surveys to high school parents and to nearly 70 staff members. Of the nearly 400 parent responses, Yackley said 83 percent of them supported some sort of cell phone policy at the school and that over 75 percent of them felt that cell phone use was an issue at the high school. On the staff side, it was over 90 percent of teachers that felt there was an issue and that there should be a policy in place.

Yackley explained that currently, some teachers don’t allow cell phones at all during their instruction, and some do. “We just want to be consistent across the board,” she said. “There was a lot of discussion among staff and they very much agree that phones are an issue and distracting.”

The new policy, which will go into effect starting next school year, calls for phones to be completely put away during the 80 minute teaching blocks, and for ear buds to also be put away at that time. The only exception to the rule will be if a teacher is using an app or learning tool that requires a cell phone to use. Yackley said students will still be allowed to use their phones before and after school, during passing time, and during lunch. The principal followed up, saying over 90 percent of the teachers surveyed did feel it was important to still allow the students access in between classes and at lunch.

The high school is currently finalizing the policy, and Yackley said it was evident from survey responses that everyone from parents to teachers are on board.

The board had to make another cut in relation to their budget adjustments, the Chisago Lakes Middle School Dean of Special Education position being cut. There was a lot of support at the meeting for the position and the board acknowledged the difficulty of the decision. 

 “We spent a lot of time and a lot of hours on this, and a lot of thought was put into it and it’s evident that this position has a lot of support,” Board member Jeff Lindeman said before the vote to eliminate the position. “I’m not sure what to say in a meeting like this sometimes. I wrote to everyone who emailed me the documentation of our finances. I truly believe this was a data driven decision – one that is difficult to make. 

“We need to pass a levy. We had to make cuts someplace and we are continuing to make cuts. There are going to be cuts all along and we are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient. It’s a difficult pill for all of us to swallow in this room. Let’s work together and continue to make this place somewhere we enjoy working at.”

Director of Human Resources Cory Becker said that the industry standard for dean to student ratio is 500-1 and currently at the middle school, it’s 241-1. He said this cut would put the middle school ratio more in line with the other buildings in the district.

The district announced that it received some large donations to the activities fund. Among them were:

• Chisago Lakes Youth Football - $1,500

• Chisago Lake Hockey Association - $1,000

• Fairview Lakes Medical - $19,000

• Lakeside PTO - $9,432

• Chisago City Fire Relief - $400

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