mi hijo llegó a casa y me dijo que hay mucha discusión sobre los teléfonos celulares. ¿Por qué estamos perdiendo el tiempo en esto? tiene que haber cosas más importantes con las que las escuelas deben lidiar.

my son came home and told me there was a lot of discussion about cell phones. Why are we wasting time on this? there have to be bigger things for schools to deal with.

Yes, your son was correct that there is discussion at the school board level to understand if our current policies are sufficient to regulate cell phone use during instructional times. The superintendent presented the current policies and school-level practices at the previous school board meeting. The following link is the presentation Presentation on Student Cell Phone Use and Policy Review - March 9, 2023.  The board directed the superintendent to hear from key stakeholder groups, high school staff, and high school students before making a recommendation to alter any policies. High school students will discuss current cell phone policies and practices at an upcoming high school Governance meeting. 

Regarding the question of whether St. Helena Unified School District (SHUSD) teaches proper hygiene to its students, here's some information to help answer that question. Hygiene is covered at different points in a student's time at SHUSD. In accordance with California state requirements, all districts must teach health education, which includes personal health topics. Additionally, physical education standards also address personal health, such as dental and personal hygiene practices. For example, one PE standard for kindergarten is to identify effective dental and personal hygiene practices.

In some cases, the district nurse or classroom teacher may provide presentations on health topics like hand-washing and bathroom etiquette in lower grades. Finally, if personal hygiene becomes an issue for a particular student, a school staff member like a counselor may have a private and sensitive conversation with them. For more information on this topic, you can refer to the 

Health Framework 

PE Standards 

February 15, 2023, at approximately 12:51 p.m., St. Helena Police Department (SHPD) called for a lockdown at St. Helena High School and adjacent St. Helena Primary School.  SHPD called the lockdown because they received a call stating that there was an active shooter on the campus and that students were injured. Law enforcement arrived on the scene within moments and systematically went classroom by classroom, clearing the buildings. They determined that no shooter was present, and no one was injured.  

During the investigation, the district learned that other agencies received similar hoax calls prompting lockdowns in other school districts.  We are proud of the instantaneous response by our local law enforcement, as well as our school staff and students.

It is very unfortunate that these pranks/hoaxes are occurring. Student safety remains our top priority, and we will continue to take every precautionary measure.  If we receive more information from SHPD about the origin of these hoaxes, we will release another update. 

The SHPD lifted the lockdown at 1:58 p.m.

We anticipate that we can re-open the play structure in three weeks following the required inspections.  We did not see any signs of rodents; instead, we believe the depressions may have been caused by an old gopher hole collapsing.  The repair work has been completed for some time. However, finding a play structure impact tester with the appropriate licensing who is available to perform the inspections has been challenging.  Our testing is scheduled for the week of February 27, 2023.