Attendance, dress codes and cell phones were among the subjects discussed at the Roswell Chamber of Commerce Education Lunch held Tuesday at the chamber, 131 W. Second St., hosted by Chamber President Andrea Moore and Membership Director Gary Thrine.
Guest speakers Brian Luck, superintendent of Roswell Independent Public Schools (RISD); Todd DeKay, executive director of institutional effectiveness at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell (ENMU-R) and Orlando Griego, chief academic officer and academic dean at New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) engaged in an interesting discussion on those and other topics during the event.
Luck said that while the public schools have dress codes and policies in place for cell phones and other distractions, enforcement priorities have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“When we did our COVID stuff, we were just so damn happy to have kids face to face and with us,” he said. “At that time, we shifted into some things that were allowable, that maybe, were not in the past.” With school attendance hovering at only 40% statewide since the pandemic, schools still find themselves in a tight spot when it comes to enforcement policies, he said.
Concerning cellphones, Luck said they are no different from other distractions, and that it is difficult to determine whether their use in school is for a legitimate purpose, such as communicating with parents, or if they are being used for games or social media.
Luck admitted he has told his children to keep their phones with them at all times.
“Now, I didn’t necessarily say, … to have it on him with the volume turned all the way up,” he said.
Often, the students may be receiving a text or a phone call from a parent asking them how the day is going or reminding them to pick up a sibling after school.
“I’m not a fan of it, I’m guilty of it a lot myself,”…
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