Weatherford School Board to revisit decision to eliminate cell phones

<br>WEATHERFORD, Okla. (AP) _ The school board plans to reconsider its decision to eliminate all school district cellular telephones now that it has been pointed out they could come in handy on a school

Friday, April 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WEATHERFORD, Okla. (AP) _ The school board plans to reconsider its decision to eliminate all school district cellular telephones now that it has been pointed out they could come in handy on a school bus in case of emergency.

Board members will discuss the issue Monday.

School board members Randy Hacker, Dwayne Hamburger, Ray Harris, Tom Tippens and Will Uraneck voted March 11 to eliminate the district's cell phone contracts because of budgetary concerns.

The 5-0 vote came after some in the district criticized Weatherford's ``excessive'' use of cell phones. The Weatherford district had 50 cell phones. A similar-sized district, Elk City, uses 14 cell phones.

Records show Dobson Cellular System billed Weatherford $2,399.05 in January. By comparison, Elk City's January bill was $485.

On March 12 _ one day after the school board's vote _ all 50 of Weatherford's cell phones were collected from personnel and buses.

Uraneck later wrote a letter to a newspaper, saying elimination of cell phones from buses could create a safety issue. He also criticized Superintendent Grant Frankenberg for the removal of the telephones.

Frankenberg said he acted at the direction of the school board.

``The board voted to eliminate all cell phone contracts,'' Frankenberg said. ``When the school board gives me a directive, I comply with that directive.

``Do I think cell phones should be on each bus? Yes I do.''

In November, a group of parents circulated a survey that found low morale among teachers and cited Frankenberg as the main reason.

More recently, he has been criticized for proposing the elimination of three and one-half teaching jobs as part of a $608,000 budget cut.

In an e-mail distributed last month, Frankenberg ordered principals to return all donations from parents or students of ``cleaning supplies, toilet paper, or paper towels.''

He defined those items as a ``massive liability'' to the district if someone should become ill.