Carroll School Board has stiffened the penalties for student use of cell phones during school hours.

At its Aug. 18 meeting, the board changed the penalties for improper use of cell phones to the following:

First offense - cell phone taken away for five days.

Second offense - cell phone taken away for 10 days.

Third offense - cell phone taken away for the remainder of the semester.

The previous practice to deal with violation of the cell phone policy was to call a student's parents and ask them to come to the school and pick up the phone.

The new penalty is corporationwide and applies to students. Likewise, staff members are not to use cell phones during instruction time or other on-duty time. Board president Sam Zook said adult violations would be reflected on their evaluations.

The board approved a request by Carroll Elementary assistant principal Roy Hufford to start fifth and sixth grade volleyball programs at the school, beginning this year. The two grade levels will each have its own team, and the school will provide the uniforms. Volunteer coach will be Julie Eurit. The season will be no more than six weeks, beginning around Aug. 31 and ending around Oct. 2. Home games will be played at the elementary school.

In his written request, Hufford gave the following reasons for starting volleyball at the elementary level: beneficial in developing students' volleyball skills, supplement the physical education volleyball curriculum, promote good sportsmanship of elementary athletes, and improve the junior and senior high volleyball programs by providing them with more experienced volleyball players.

Superintendent John Sayers announced that student enrollment is down 27 from last year, although official count day is still a couple weeks away.

Two more students have been accepted as cash tuition students from outside the school district - Alexa and Carson Stout.

Also accepted was an early graduation request from Cogan Draper, who will graduate at the end of the first semester.

Michelle Strawcutter has resigned as an elementary aide.

Virginia Rusch-Mills will be an assistant Junior Class sponsor this year, and Lance Spesard will be eighth grade girls basketball coach. A position is still open for junior-senior high school nurse.

The annual Senior Trip will be Oct. 5 and 6 at a cost of $355 per student.

The board renewed its property insurance with Indiana Insurance, through RME, at a cost of $88,519. Sayers said the cost is six percent higher than last year, due mainly to an increase in value of corporation buildings.

The board declared various monitors, keyboards, and computer units as surplus equipment.

Junior-senior high school principal Charles Huckstep announced that non-perishable food items will be collected for the Carroll County Food Pantry at the Bacon Bowl Aug. 28 and that the school's Meet the Teacher Night will be Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.

The next board meeting will be Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Administration Building. A work session will precede the meeting, beginning at 5:30 p.m.