The school board approved a policy change Tuesday that adjusted the division's ban on cell phone use at school for all grade levels. A similar ban was in place previously for K-8 students, but high school students were allowed to use their phones if they had permission.
"This is really going to take all of us," school board member Randy Riffle said at Tuesday's board meeting. "This is gonna be a little tough at the beginning ... I get stuck in my phone all the time ... It's a little scary. I get it."
Enforcing the policy may be a "losing battle" in the beginning, Riffle said, but he said he thinks it will unlock new achievement levels for students in the division in the long run.
The policy change comes after Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order mandating that school systems devise ways to create cell phone free environments at school. WJCC's ban will be enforced with a tiered punishment system, with the student being completely banned from bringing their phone to school on the fourth infraction.
School board member Kimberley Hundley said she and Riffle talked with some community members on Monday about how the policy could affect students.
Some asked what resources would be available to students who are "addicted" to their cell phones, Hundley said.
"I see someone laughing in the audience," she said at the meeting Tuesday, "but I did see a child whose cell phone was removed and they hyperventilated."
"It is a real thing," Hundley added. "It sounds funny, but I'm hoping that guidance counselors or someone will have some tips to help students who may have an addiction, and that may be hard for them, because then that is a distraction from their learning if they're having issues with that."
Also on Tuesday, the school board heard pushback during public comment to the idea of school employees being given collective bargaining rights.
While some teachers and parents of students spoke in favor of school workers having a say in the terms of their working conditions, a number of community members said it was a bad idea.
"The (public school) system is owned and operated by the citizens and the taxpayers for the benefit of the children who reside here in our community," James City County resident Chris Henderson said. "I cannot find a single example where a union has been introduced into a school system, where costs have gone down and performance has gone up. Those are the metrics on which this proposal should be judged and it fails."
"Empowering a union will usurp the authority that's been granted to (the school board) by the voters, and as a voter, I object to that," he said.
Notably, the Williamsburg James City Education Association already has a large presence as a voice in the school system and provides resources to many WJCC employees. The school board is expected to vote on whether to grant collective bargaining rights to employees in general, not to the WJCEA.
The WJCEA could be selected by employees to be their representative in collective bargaining, but the school board is set to vote on whether to allow collective bargaining at all.
Andrew Cason, treasurer of the WJCEA and a teacher at Jamestown High School, advocated for including workers in negotiating the terms of their employment, saying, "I think it's a pretty simple option."
"No shade thrown at our superintendent, but superintendents in Virginia can negotiate their pay — why not teachers, why not support staff?" he said.
The school board is reaching the end of a 120-day timeframe set in motion when the WJCEA submitted an affidavit in May for the school division to consider whether to allow collective bargaining. The affidavit included signatures from most of the roughly 1,000 teachers in the school system.
The board's Sept. 17 meeting will be its last chance to vote on the matter before violating the timeframe.
In other business, the board awarded a $550,000 contract to McDonough Bolyard Peck for help with construction management services for two new pre-kindergarten centers at Norge Elementary and Clara Byrd Baker Elementary. The firm will help oversee construction of the centers, each of which is expected to house around 250 students.
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