This past Monday, Nov. 3, District 99 hosted the first board meeting of the month. The meeting opened with a presentation by members of the Health Occupation Students of America club chapter, which was recently founded at DGN.

Students Kira Chaudhari, Ava Joseph, Chloe Lange and Ava Langley took the microphone to explain how HOSA supports DGN students and the surrounding community. Senior Kira Chaudhari, co-president and co-founder of the DGN HOSA chapter, described how the club hosts healthcare professionals to speak on their experiences in their field.

“So far, we’ve had a sports medicine physician who is also trained in family practice, a physical [therapist], a good variety of nurses, and we’ve also had an occupational therapist come and speak to the kids,” Chaudhari said.

As a community-driven organization, HOSA also spearheads health-related volunteer initiatives. HOSA was able to organize a food drive in collaboration with the nearby FISH food pantry; HOSA members also made fleece blankets for pediatric cancer centers. For the more than 100 students involved in HOSA at DGN, the club is an invaluable resource to promote health care opportunities.

“I plan to go into college majoring in biomedical engineering, and HOSA does have competitions for things like biotechnology, and I also want to go into med school after that. I think the guest speakers and volunteering opportunities are really a great way to expose myself to the field of medicine,” Chaudhari said.

After the HOSA students left to encouraging applause, the meeting shifted focus to recent district-wide policy changes.

Student board members from DGN and DGS shared their own experience with the new cell phone policy, emphasizing increased student engagement in the classroom. Student board members also addressed criticism of the long lines the new scanners can create: although students wait in line to scan for their resource periods, scanner inefficiencies are largely a non-issue for regular class periods.

Deans from DGS shared a more expansive perspective on the impact of the new policies, particularly the cell phone policy. Last year, before the implementation of the cell phone policy, 39 referrals had been written for students. In the same time period this year, after the implementation of the cell phone policy, 339 referrals have been written for students.

Although South teachers acknowledged that these numbers looked “bad,” they also emphasized that the high number of referrals is most likely due to students adjusting to the new policy, saying that these referrals are often not repeat students. The teachers also emphasized the importance of a consistent application of the phone policy.

Superintendent Dr. Hank Thiele expanded on what the phone policy should look like in classrooms.

“This year’s policy sets some expectations that [phones are] away by default, gives teachers some tools to have them away by default, but ultimately, that classroom teacher has to determine what’s best for the kids in front of them,” Thiele said.

Meeting agendas and future meeting dates for the District 99 board can be found through their website here.