When it comes to technology, the one constant is change.

Late Tuesday, Pearland school trustees changed longstanding district policy to allow students to carry cell phones while on campus.

Before, students could only text or chat on their cells when they left the classroom. Today is a new day, district officials say.

“Teachers ought to have flexibility to allow cell phones for class assignments,” trustee Andrew Solomon said.

Kathy London, a policy consultant with the Texas Association of School Boards, agreed. In a memo to Pearland schools, she recommended that the district relax its cell-phone policy.

In the letter to Brenda Waters, the school district’s assistant superintendent over policy, London suggested the district allow “students to possess telecommunications equipment,” as long as it is not used during the instructional day.

But the change comes with a caveat: “A student who uses a telecommunication device or has a telecommunications device that is visible during the school day shall have it confiscated.”

The plot thickens. Once a cell phone is confiscated, parents have to fork over $15 to get it back, with the proceeds going to the school’s activity fund. And if there’s “sexting” – sending lewd photos or text over cell phones – law-enforcement will be notified.

If past years are any indication, Pearland school officials will have their hands full. School principals and their staff confiscated a record number of cell phones in the 2008-09 school year.

Here’s the districtwide breakdown of cell phones collected, and the amount it generated during that school year:

• Alexander Middle School: 26 cell phones picked up, $390 collected;
• Sam Jamison Middle School: 70 picked up, $1,050 collected;
• Rogers Middle School: 26 picked up, $390 collected;
• Leon Sablatura Middle School: 18 picked up, $270 collected;
• Pearland Junior High East: 125 picked up; $1,880 collected;
• Pearland Junior High South: 71 picked up; $1,070 collected;
• Pearland Junior High West: 112 picked up; $1,685 collected;
• Berry Miller Junior High: 109 picked up; $1,640 collected;
• Pearland High School: 247 picked up; $3,705 collected;
• Glenda Dawson High School: 134 picked up; $2,010 collected; and
• PACE Center, 40 picked up; $600 collected.

Trustee Lillian Smith said district staff should be on guard for students who try to cut corners academically with their cell phones.

"There's way too much evidence that kids cheat with their phones," Smith said. "They can take a picture of a test" and share the information with their friends.

Waters, the ditrict’s assistant superintendent over policy, will talk to principals and teachers over the coming weeks “to see if they want kids using (cell phones) in classes and how they would use it for educational uses,” district spokeswoman Renea Ivy-Sims said.

Any further changes to the cell phone policy would be brought back before the board, Ivy-Sims said.

robert.stanton@chron.com