The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School committee this week approved an updated student handbook that strictly limits the use of personal devices during school hours.

Former Oak Bluffs police officer and Rhode Island state police detective Jared Andrews is joining the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School staff as director of the student affairs office, overseeing the school’s counseling department.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School committee voted 7-1 Monday to allow the continued development of a new policy preventing nearly all student use of mobile phones during the school day.

Sonali Nijhawan, appointed as the director by President Joe Biden in 2021, visited Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Wednesday to speak with students and nonprofit leaders interested in joining the service network.

When Covid-19 restrictions forced Island schools to go dark in early 2020, thousands of video screens lit up as teachers took their lessons online and isolated children reached out to each other through cell phones and social media. Educators are still dealing with the aftermath.

The board, which had pondered issuing a moratorium on artificial playing surfaces for nearly two years, said its decision was done to protect water quality from harmful and long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS.

Starting in September, students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will no longer be permitted to use their personal laptops and tablets, which school officials say are too easily misused for cheating, virtual truancy and evading the district’s internet controls.

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School officials have discovered more than $160,000 in budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year, but taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the increases.

Home games on the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School field will stream live online in future seasons, thanks to a $10,000 gift from Martha’s Vineyard Community Television.