BY STEVEN STIEFEL | FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Board of Education approved updates to its policy manual ahead of the new school year, including measures to comply with a new state law banning mobile device use in classrooms during instructional time.
Superintendent Mike Howard said the board adopted the new policy during its most recent meeting, and details are now available on the school system’s website. However, he said further clarification is needed regarding vague language in the state law, particularly the requirement that devices be “off” and “off your person.”
“We’re going to have to sit down with our folks and define what that actually means,” Howard said. “Does that mean in a backpack, a locker or a car? And is ‘off’ silent, or completely powered down? There’s still a lot of interpretation involved.”
Howard acknowledged that enforcing the law could prove difficult and predicted resistance from students and parents alike.
“This is going to be a big issue until people get used to it,” he said. “I mean, that’s still, there’s a lot, so there’s a lot of interpretation going on with some of this stuff. The biggest pushback will come from parents who say they bought their child a $1,500 phone to keep them safe.”
Howard said they will outline specifics before the start of the school year.
“This is very difficult policy to enforce because we deal with cell phones all day long,” he said. “You’re going to have the adults [on school staff] versus the kids. You’re going to have just a lot of complaints with that, so I do foresee in the future that there may be an amendment to the Focus Act which includes school staffing. We need to prepare our folks now that we don’t need to be on our cell phones during instruction. We need to make sure that we hold everybody to the same standard.”
During the first month of school, administrators will issue verbal warnings for minor infractions, but egregious violations could lead to immediate consequences.
“A lot of verbal warnings — ‘You can’t have that. You need to put that away,’” Howard said. “And we’re not responsible for any theft. If somebody steals my wallet out of the locker room, we still have to investigate. We still have to do that, so we’ll do our due diligence that is required, but it’s going to be hard if I’ve got, even if a wallet has $20 stolen, if it’s in a locker room. Obviously, we don’t have cameras in any locker rooms, so now you’re having to look at the camera outside in the gym. What if you have 100 football players leaving. Are you going to question all 100 kids? There’s no way. A lot of this is going to be common sense stuff. We’ll do the best we can, but, you know, we’re going to be limited of what we can do. You don’t HAVE to have your cell phone. You choose to bring a cell phone. So that exonerates us from that part of it now.”
Howard also raised concerns about the legal implications of confiscating phones, particularly when devices are stored in pockets or bags and not actively used.
“Once you start seizing property not in use, you’re entering questionable territory around search and seizure,” he said. “Our focus will be on whether a device is causing a distraction. There is no easy answer. We all have to be on the same page the best we possibly can.”
The board is developing a discipline ladder to handle violations and plans to involve parents, administrators and students in reviewing the approach.
“We don’t want to jump from zero to a hundred on a first offense,” Howard said. “The law requires consequences, but we’re trying to implement a tiered system. Us putting in levels to the discipline is actually on us because the law says you can’t have it and if you are, you’re breaking the law and you’re supposed to like really have hard consequences for breaking the law.”
Valedictorian, Salutatorian Selection Criteria Updated
The board also approved revisions to how valedictorians and salutatorians are selected. The updated policy ensures that students from special education programs, athletic teams and extracurricular groups are not excluded based on course sequencing.
The criteria maintain GPA weighting for advanced placement and dual enrollment classes, allowing students to earn above a 4.0. Tie-breakers will be determined by ACT scores, with the highest overall score breaking the tie, followed by math and English sub-scores, if necessary.
Howard said the changes aim to clarify selection methods while maintaining fairness across schools of varying sizes and resources.
“We want to ensure no student misses out on scholarships or recognition because of limited access to weighted courses,” he said.
Valedictorian and salutatorian designations will now be finalized after the first semester of senior year to provide consistency and flexibility under block scheduling.
Other Policy Updates
Additional updates include:
- Changing references from grades K–6 to K–5 in system documents
- Updating language around employee resignations to reflect that failure to return to work may be considered job abandonment
- Complying with a new state law offering eight weeks of paid parental leave to mothers with medical documentation and two weeks to fathers
Transportation and Nutrition Awards
The board awarded a $1.79 million bid to Beasley Construction to build a new Smiths Station Transportation Annex. The project will relocate bus operations from downtown Opelika to a centralized facility near seven Smiths Station-area schools.
“We run 210 bus routes a day across the county, and more than 100 of those serve Smiths Station,” Howard said. “This move will make repairs and deployment more efficient.”
The board also: - Recognized Child Nutrition Program Coordinator Krystal Patterson and her staff for receiving a Healthy Meal Incentives Recognition Award from Action for Healthy Kids and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Patterson is the president-elect of the Alabama School Nutrition Association.
- Awarded the produce contract for the Child Nutrition Program to Mason Produce.
- Approved the 2025–26 Student Handbook and Code of Conduct.
- Approved out-of-state and overnight field trips.
- Reviewed monthly financial reports for May, with 67% of the fiscal year’s budget expended through eight months.
