Students return to class with new cellphone policy in place

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 4, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Superintendent Mike Nightingale speaks with reporters on Tuesday at the Lethbridge School Division office building, as students returned to classes for the first day of the new school year.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge School Division is thrilled to welcome their students back for the new school year and shared their enthusiasm with reporters during a press conference on Tuesday morning.

Mike Nightingale, superintendent of the Lethbridge School Division, said it is always exciting to begin a new year and everyone was happy to see students once again after the summer break.

“We’re always really excited to start up a school year, about the kids and families coming back. It’s always an exciting time. We’re ready to go and excited to have kids back in our schools,” said Nightingale.

During the summer the provincial government introduced a cellphone policy for schools across the province and Nightingale said they have a procedure in place, which is essentially a gradual release of responsibility.

“In elementary, there’s going to be limited to no use of personal mobile devices, in middle school there’s a little bit of flexibility not during class time, but a little bit of flexibility during non-instructional time and in high school there isn’t use during instructional time, but there is use permitted during non-instructional time,” explained Nightingale.

He said there is more nuance to that, but that is basically their policy. And in terms of social media access, he said it will not be accessed on their school networks unless it is for educational purposes.

When asked about the new Social Studies curriculum, Nightingale said they are looking forward to piloting it this year.

“We have a number of teachers in a number of schools that are going to pilot it. There are some things that we believe probably need to be improved and I think it’s really important that our teachers, who are in the classroom, have an opportunity to really provide that feedback,” said Nightingale.

 He said he believes that if that feedback is gathered and listened to they will be provided with an opportunity to improve the curriculum and get it to where they think it should be.

Allison Purcell, board chair for the Lethbridge School Division, echoed Nightingale’s words of excitement about the new school year and added that they welcomed teachers and staff last week and they are now excited to welcome their students.

Purcell also talked about the new boundaries that will need to be set for the new elementary school being built in the west side of the city to accommodate the students who will be attending it next year.

“We will be able to see the results of all the engagement on the surveys that we did. Most likely that will come forward at our September board meeting, which will then provide opportunity for community to provide their last bit of engagement and their feedback so that we can go forward with approving the boundary changes that are going to be coming forward for our new elementary school,” said Purcell.

She said the new school will help alleviate the overcrowded schools on the westside which include Nicholas Sheran Elementary School, Mike Mountain Horse Elementary School and Coalbanks Elementary School. With Coalbanks Elementary school being a Spanish immersion school, Purcell said options were presented to parents of students who might need to relocate after the boundaries are set for the new school.

“Over the course of the engagement in the surveys, there was definitely some varying options that were presented. One of those options was certainly to be relocating the Spanish bilingual program,” said Purcell.

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