Does the School Pay for Your Cell Phone?

[Tasha Olsonawski]

I am getting contacted a lot more on the weekends to fix things for my administrators. Often I am expected to check email on the weekends as well. I currently have a data plan on my cell phone for my personal use but I get many school notifications on it.

I am wondering how many of your schools either provide you with a phone or pay for a portion of your personal cell phone. If they provide you with a phone, do you still keep a personal phone to? I need some data to back up my request to have my school help pay for mine.

[Brian Norman]

My district does not pay for my cell phone.

[Jon H]

My previous district paid for my cellphone. I was allowed to use it for "limited" personal use. (Typically the majority of personal use occurred during free nights & weekends.) I didn't want to carry multiple phones. My view is if an employer wants to be able to communicate with me at their convenience they should be willing to pay for it. It was the understanding that during school days I was expected to answer/respond to messages. I was rarely ever called nights or weekends.

We actually erated the phone and data service. (This option means you need to be really careful of personal use.)

Another option that leaves you in control of your phone for your use is to have the district pay an agreed upon stipend toward your monthly bill.

Don't let the intrusions into your personal time get out of hand. It is something you consider discussing with your supervisor.

[John Jacobson]

Like the other administrators, DGF pays for my voice plan. They do not pay for the data and/or text messages. The data package has been requested but it doesn't look like this will happen.

[Bob Henderson]

My school does not pay for my cellphone, though I do find myself relying on it more and more. I think my main concern would be the lack of desire to want to carry more than one phone in the pocket, as John has stated. One thing I would also push would be the remote delete capability via exchange, to help protect the district against potential data lost if the cellphone is misplaced/stolen/etc.

[Lynn Day]

I know we talked about this at the last meeting, but here it is in writing.... Moorhead pays for cell service for the full-time technicians that travel between buildings. They each have a Blackberry device with cell, text, and data plan. The calendar on the BB syncs with our district calendar. The technology department budget pays for the phones and plans. We follow the same protocol that is used for all district provided cell phones.

Within the district, other employees also have cell phones. The department or building budget is responsible for paying for the plan. I have a district standard cell phone and a district standard Blackberry device that our cell users can choose from so that we can provide better support. The plan (including number of minutes and features) is decided based on the needs of the user. Personal use is not banned but if usage goes over the plan, the employee is expected to reimburse the district.

We have a combination of Verizon and Sprint/Nextel phones in the district. The plans I have set up through the government/education sectors of these two companies pool minutes so that as a whole, the district is saving money. We receive E-Rate reimbursement for the phones that are eligible under E-Rate rules.

[Jodee Ebeling]

Perham is changing from a provided cell phone to a stipend to partially cover the cost of a cell phone. We are still in the process of working out the particulars.