At its Tuesday night meeting, the Minneapolis Board of Education unanimously voted to send back a resolution to alter the student personal device policy back to the board’s policy committee. The resolution, only applicable for high school students, would allow teachers to set their own policy for how to handle phones in the classroom.

The current policy states, “Unless the device is being appropriately used…the student shall secure the personal electronic device either out of sight or holstered and turned off.” Appropriate phone uses for high school students are before and after the school day, during the student’s lunch period, during passing time between classes, during class time when the classroom teacher permits the use for educational purposes only, and during the school day by permission from the school principal.

The current electronic device policy will stay in effect for now.

Minneapolis Schools Voices reporter Melissa Whitler live-tweeted the school board meeting. The meeting is available to watch here.

At the meeting, administration shared some job vacancy information, but all-encompassing data was not made available. Senior Officer of Schools Shawn Harris-Berry said that eight of 70 schools have fully staffed intervention triads, which are a set of three instructors to address learning loss at specific schools. And 60% of K-5 teachers on special assignments, referred to as TOSA positions, have been filled.

The Policy Committee meets again on Aug. 22 at 4:30 p.m. and the board will meet for its Committee of the Whole meeting on Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. The next school board meeting is Sept. 12 at 5:30 p.m.