Cambridge-area schools have seen a significant drop in reports of misbehavior and rule infractions, a subcommittee reported to the Cambridge Public School Committee last night.

Using high school incident reports from the past two school years, a subcommittee made up of school district officials and principals reported significant decreases in infractions including tardiness, classroom disruption, and verbal altercations.

The committee discussed specific measures to further decrease the level and degree of misbehavior in the local schools.

Although the committee noted that discipline reporting may not be consistent across classrooms, acting Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) principal Christopher Saheed attributed the decreases to a school-wide cultural change, referencing his school’s homeroom program. In this initiative, a group of twenty students are matched up with two or more teachers throughout their high school careers.

This program creates an informal advising system for students towards the school’s goal of “connection, communication, and community,” Saheed said.

Cambridge schools have however seen significant increases in student tobacco use from 38 incidents in the 2004-2005 school year to 105 the following year, the subcommittee reported. The committee attributed this trend to stricter infraction reporting on campus.

There was also a dramatic increase in the number of students cutting class, a perennial problem at CRLS, which committee members said was due to glitches in a new online attendance system.

Chief Operating Officer James Maloney stressed the importance of the high school’s open campus policy, saying that it enables “the students and faculty [to] contribute more.” He added that security measures such as required check-in for visitors keep the campus secure without metal detectors and welded windows.

Committee member Alfred B. Fantini expressed concern about the effects of infractions on overall educational experience, stating that “the cost of discipline...just takes away from the effort we could put into academics.”

Also at the last night’s meeting, the school district’s chief financial officer James Conry presented the school district’s End of Year Report, which summarized the district’s 2005-2006 expenditures. The district’s spendings amounted to just under $150 million.

—Staff writer Kristin E. Blagg can be reached at kblagg@fas.harvard.edu.