School Committee Looks to Implement District-wide Cellphone Policy

By Adam Swift

The school committee is working towards implementing a district-wide cellphone policy that would have students store their phones so they would be unable to use them during the school day.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Almi Abeyta presented an update on the policy at last week’s committee meeting. A final draft could be in place for a vote by the school committee at its December meeting.

“Last year, one of our middle schools (the Browne) piloted a cellphone policy and it went really well,” said Abeyta. “One of the reasons we are asking for a cellphone policy and to be a little more specific is because our middle school principals in particular were wanting and asking for a cellphone policy. After the Browne implemented that policy, they came to me this summer and said, ‘Can we have a policy, can we do this as well?’”

Before implementing a district-wide policy, however, Abeyta said it needed to come before the school committee.

The superintendent noted that the policy that is currently being fine tuned and under consideration is coming from the ground up from the teachers and the leaders in the schools.

Abeyta said there are several reasons for implementing a new policy, including increasing student engagement, discourse and academic achievement; decreasing negative behaviors directly and indirectly related to cellphone use during the school day; creating positive routines for students; and having a consistent policy in place in every classroom.

Studies also underscore the negative effects cellphone use has on teens and the positive impacts that can come through having phone-free schools, the superintendent added.

“The procedures that we are recommending are that phones are not allowed to be used during the school day, and every student would be assigned a personal Yondr pouch,” said Abeyta.

A Yondr pouch is a lockable cellphone bag, students would hand over their phones to have them placed in the bags at the beginning of the school day, and then the pouches would be unlocked before the students leave for the day. Students would be responsible for keeping the Yondr pouches in their backpacks and bringing them to school every day.

Over 1,200 school districts use the Yondr pouches, Abeyta said. She said Yondr claims that the large majority of those districts have seen improvements in student behavior and performance.

In the event family members needed to contact a student, they would be able to call or contact the schools, Abeyta said.

“The policy we have had over the past two years has done the most to help kids focus on their learning because everybody is on the same page,” said Browne Middle School teacher Katheryn Anderson. “Families understand, students understand, and every adult in the building has the exact same expectation.”

Anderson said it was harder to regulate cellphones in the classrooms when there was no consistent policy in place. She added that it would be helpful to have a consistent policy in place across the entire district.

The policy has resulted in increased focus from students in the classroom and more interactions between the students outside of the classrooms, Anderson added.

“I don’t think there is truly a need for a child to have a phone during the day,” said school committee Chair Ana Hernandez. “If there was an emergency going on during the day in the school, a child calling their parent is not going to take care of the issue. If anything, it is going to cause more chaos and more stress for the parents.”

School committee member Dr. Sarah Neville noted that the committee is still working on refining the policy and welcomes input from the community. “I have found this conversation really enlightening, and I think it is really important that we have this as a district-level policy,” said Neville. “What I have heard is that in some other places the problem is when you have a cellphone policy that doesn’t have equal buy-in from everyone at every level of the schools.”