Marlboro Superintendent Michael Rydell presented several revisions to the district’s Code of Conduct during the final Board of Education meeting of the summer on Monday, August 19. The board unanimously approved adoption of the code of conduct for the upcoming year.

The Code of Conduct outlines behaviors for all groups, adults and students on Marlboro Central School District property and events. The document is available on the district website under BoardDocs.

Rydell began with the Dress Code section which reads, “Students are not permitted to wear any dress or appearance which constitutes a disruption to the educational process.” The previous language of the code read “Clothing depicting controversial symbols that can be reasonably be forecast to cause substantial disruption to the school environment is prohibited.” Rydell called the revision an improvement to the code.

“One of the ambitions from our team was to use general and clear language, improve the language on our code of conduct and also see if there were any gaps in what we already were putting out there as far as expectations for dress,” said Rydell.
Rydell discussed expectations and protocols for electronic devices, focusing on cell phones in school.

The section dedicated to cell phones is a brand new addition to the overall code. “This was not in the 23-24 school year code of conduct; it’s now explicitly outlined in there,” said Rydell. “The main idea is that cell phone use is not permitted during the academic day.”

The code states that cell phone use is prohibited except when authorized by a teacher or administrator and covers prohibited conduct using cell phones on and off school property.

Rydell noted that at different academic levels, there would be differences outside of the academic realm where kids would use cell phones like in the cafeteria.

The language originally stated in the code of conduct says that “Cell phones must be silenced” but has now been revised to “Cell phones must be off and out of sight during the academic day.” The language has also been applied to the disorderly conduct section of the code.

“It’s [a cell phone] not just silenced on your desk. It’s silenced or off, ideally in your bag, away, out of sight, really, thereby decreasing the amount of distractions that the cell phones could be attributed to,” said Rydell.

Discussing disruptive conduct, an addition to the code prohibits “posting any hurtful, threatening, and/or inappropriate comments, slurs, narratives and/or picture to social media platforms and/or electronic communication.”

“Obviously, the amount of social media electronic communications is not decreasing; rather, it’s increasing among students,” said Rydell. “We want to make sure that they know our expectations of what is unacceptable, and that includes on and off school property.”

The “violent conduct” section now prohibits possessing, “while on school property or at a school function, flammable liquids, chemicals, and/or materials. Another section prohibits unauthorized video/recording of staff while on or off school grounds.

Under “Detention and In School Suspension” the code says, “Students assigned detention must turn in their cell phones to supervising staff during detention.”

In addition, the code now prohibits “inappropriate and/or aggressive language/behaviors towards school personnel and/or students.”

The “Suspension from Athletic Participation, Extra-curricular Activities, etc.” section was removed and will be captured in the athletic handbook. Students and families will be given the right to informally meet with a district representative to discuss the conduct and the penalty involved.

Rydell concluded with his announcement of the opening of schools coming up. The Marlboro Dukes varsity and junior varsity football teams began on Monday and the remaining varsity and J.V. sports begin on August 26. Buildings are being prepared for the upcoming school year and facility projects are being completed. New teacher orientation was announced to be held on August 27 and 28, Marlboro Middle School and Marlboro High School orientations will be held on August 29, and a Playground with the Principals event will be held on August 30. The superintendent’s conference day will be held on September 3 and the official first day of school will be September 4. The next board meeting will be held on September 5 at Marlboro Elementary School. “We’re looking forward to having them [students] come back, finally,” said Rydell.