At the start of the 2016-17 school year, LT administration implemented new policies regarding dress code and cell phone use during school. Student use of cell phones is allowed during non-instructional time—study hall, lunch, and passing periods—while during class, teachers have discretion. Students are also free to dress as they like as long as it is not causing a disruption to the learning environment. Both changes were decided upon at school board meetings during the spring of 2016.

“One of the drivers for the [technology] update was based on how we can give students and teachers another resource to use in the classroom—how can we leverage the fact that a majority of students have access to a smartphone,” Principal Brian Waterman said. “There was also an interest from our leadership team in focusing more on whether dress is appropriate or inappropriate verus whether it met some quantitative criteria.”

The technology project was lead by Assistant Principal Adam Davis with a committee consisting of a group of administrators, a group of teachers and IT Director Ed Tennant. Together they researched student use of technology in the classroom, looked at other schools’ policies and the advantages and disadvantages of re-writing the policy.

“We really felt like we wanted to update our policy to reflect our practice. Students were using cellphones in the hallways but we wanted to provide language to support that,” Waterman said. “We want students to have access to their cell phones for a variety of reasons—most importantly, for accessing Canvas and Infinite Campus, but also to complete homework or even for stress relief.”

While the school year has only just begun, the new policies seem to be succeeding. Students and teachers alike seem to be enjoying the new changes. The full policy descriptions can be found in the student handbook.

“I have no problem with the updated technology policy,” Kevin Murphy, physics and astronomy teacher of 26 years, said. “Everyone has a stopwatch for physics now.”

Students are also appreciating the dress code changes.

“The dress code allows people to remain cool and be comfortable in the warm months and I do not see it to be a disruption,” Katie Broedlow ’17 said.

As the school year progresses, teachers and administration will continue to monitor the policies for any additional revisions.

“There were some concerns that came up about the proposed electronic device language, including academic dishonesty,” Waterman said. “Academic dishonesty has always been prohibited and will continue to be; however, we don’t want to create a policy based on what a small percentage of students might do.”