But now the Sills administration needs a staff reorganization that will end the petty bureaucratic bickering and administrative clumsiness. The city needs a team that can work through the extremely complex job of turning promise into implementation. The popularity and affordability of cell phones and beepers are making them part of everyday life. So they are becoming a prickly issue for school administrators. Unrestricted use of cell phones and beepers in schools is obviously not a practical option.
Restrictions are necessary to prevent disruption.
The question is what kind of restrictions make sense. General rules are not favored by school officials, who prefer local autonomy in most matters. But this is one case where a statewide rule on access to wireless communications would be helpful and practical. A rule promulgated by the state Department of Education should simply require that personal cell phones and beepers should be invisible and inaudible in classrooms during school hours, and that neither students nor faculty should be permitted to receive or initiate wireless calls during class. It would be left to local school jurisdictions to refine that basic code to mesh with school climate rules outside classrooms.