A. Dover is right. You can't let one board member have a privilege and deny it to others. B. Make a policy that says no one is allowed to carry a cell phone to meetings, no exceptions. Your EMT board member can get messages from the district operator during meetings. The first misstep the Chalk Hill board made was allowing a board member to receive calls and talk on the phone at meetings, instead of asking her to step out of the room.
Most cell phones have a silent setting that vibrates rather than rings with an incoming call.
Banning the phones altogether isn't practical, since there are many valid reasons why people need to carry them. However, interrupting meetings is unacceptable, and no one, not even a board member, should be allowed to carry on a private conversation in the boardroom while official business is taking place. Adviser art by Kyle Dreier . Advice For The Asking . If you are plagued with a prickly problem of school board service, school governance, or school administration, throw it in the lap of American School Board Journal's cadre of consultants, known collectively as the Adviser.