Several policy changes were approved at the Calcasieu Parish School Board meeting on Tuesday.

Most were required by state law, as a result of recent legislative changes.

Act 311 — which was signed into law in May — requires school systems to provide additional compensation for teachers for overtime work and work that is not included in job descriptions.

It also requires school districts to develop a uniform supplemental salary schedule that ensures all certified employees are paid a minimum of 30 dollars an hour for extra hours worked and duties completed.

CPSB approved this salary schedule last month.

To ensure employee job duties are clear, the board approved revised job descriptions for faculty and staff.

Phyllis Ayo, District 11, inquired about the job description for school counselors. She noted it did not include testing coordination.

“I think they spend more time than we realize testing.”

The board unanimously agreed to vote on the school counselor job description at a future meeting, so that it can be edited to include testing in the job duties.

She and other board members voiced concerns about elementary teachers not receiving four minutes of unencumbered planning time. Ayo moved that the board receive “something in writing” creating a universal policy and assuring teachers receive 45 minutes of unencumbered time to take care of lunch, personal business and basic needs to be presented at a future meeting.

The board also approved a revised code of conduct to comply with Acts 324, 337 and 313.

Act 324 requires that students who are suspended two times receive counseling provided by school districts “to get to the root of why they’re being suspended,” said Superintendent Jason VanMetre. CPSB previously required students to be referred to the Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) – a facility that assists at-risk children and their families – after three suspensions. The updated policy now requires this step after two.

Act 337 adjusts the tobacco use infraction level from “2” to “3B,” and adds the phrase “any student in grades six through 12 found guilty of being in possession of tobacco, alcohol or a vaping product on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event, may be recommended or expulsion” to the vapes and electronic smoking device policy.

The act also allows administrators to recommend a student for expulsion after three suspensions instead of four.

Act 313 mandates the restriction of cell phone usage on school campuses. VanMetre said that he told administrators ‘If there is one state law you remember, please remember Act 313.”

The revised CPSB code of conduct removes the “bring your own device” (BYOD) program, requiring phones be “turned off and stowed away” during instructional time – first bell to last bell.

Board President Eric Tarver, District 8, was an advocate of BYOD when it was first instituted, but he is now in full support of removing personal, electronic telecommunication devices from schools.

“I’m a total 180 on it. I want to see this enforced,” he said. “It wasn’t a mistake to try it. It’s good to try things, but I think we definitely tried and succeeded at discovering something not to do.”