By CHRIS AADLAND, The CUJ
MISSION – With a new school year at Nixyáawii Community School (NCS) comes new rules for students, including stricter requirements to miss class for cultural activities and a cell phone ban.
The changes come after NCS staff tired of wrestling with the consequences of students taking advantage of lenient policies and what school officials say is a poorer education those students receive as a result.
Nixyáawii students have been allowed to miss school to participate in cultural events or practices, said principal Ryan Heinrich. Missed days for those reasons had been counted as excused absences.
But the school has changed its cultural leave policy for the start of the academic year, limiting the number of days students could miss for those reasons and requiring documentation of their experience.
The school made the change after NCS staff and school board member concerns surfaced in May that some families and students had been abusing the cultural leave policy. Students were missing school for things that couldn’t reasonably be considered a traditional cultural activity but claiming cultural significance just to skip school and avoid having to complete missed assignments.
Events like funerals, memorials and activities like gathering, hunting or fishing are acceptable cultural leave justifications, Heinrich said during a school board meeting discussion about the issue in May. “Shed hunting is not,” he added.
Although Henrich said most students appropriately use the school’s cultural leave rules, three or four families frequently abused the policy which forced the change.
Nixyáawii students will now only be permitted four cultural leave days per year. Any additional absences where a student says they were participating in a cultural activity will be considered unexcused absences, according to Heinrich.
When returning from their leave, students will also need to complete a form and provide basic details – such as what they did, who they were with and why it was important to them – about their experience and turn it in to a teacher within two days. The school implemented that change last year to try and cut down on the problem.
The school’s new policy also addresses assignments and work the student missed while participating in a cultural activity or event.
Falling behind in class and not completing assignments or other work missed while on cultural leave was one of the biggest concerns NCS leaders and the school board brought up when discussing potential responses to misuse of the policy.
Previously, students were not necessarily required to complete every assignment they may have missed while out on cultural leave.
But under the new policy, students will be required to complete any assignments or assessments they missed.
School bans cellphones
Schools nationwide, including in Oregon and Washington, have increasingly grappled with how to manage cellphones over concerns that unchecked use of mobile devices in the classroom or in school keeps students from learning or leads to bullying.
In Oregon, student cellphone policies are left up to individual school districts, though the Oregon Department of Education plans to release guidance around cellphone use in schools, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
At Nixyáawii, Heinrich said cellphones were previously allowed to be used during the school day and in classrooms, which resulted in students spending too much time on their phones and using social media instead of paying attention to their teachers. Educators have also raised concerns that unregulated cellphone use in schools contributed to bullying and fights.
That prompted the school to try a cellphone use ban pilot period during school for the second half of the year, Heinrich said.
Since students were less distracted and participated in class more after the ban was instituted, NCS decided to make the policy permanent starting with the new school year.
According to the policy, students will be required to turn their cellphones off and put them away during the school day. Students will be allowed to use them before school, during lunch and after school.
Consequences for students caught with their phones will range from the device being held in the school office for the remainder of the day or requiring a parent or guardian to come and pick it up. Students who are frequently caught violating the rule could face stiffer punishment, such as in-school suspension or meetings with school leaders.
If parents or guardians need to reach a student because of an emergency, Heinrich said they can call the office and have a staff member pass a message along to the student.
Other changes at NCS, which operates as a charter school on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, include an altered bell schedule and new tardy policy to cut down on the time students miss from class or are frequently late.
