Saugerties junior high touts attendance gains, expands mental‑health supports and keeps strict cell‑phone rules

Saugerties Central School District junior high principal Miss Veil said the school has tightened a no‑phone policy in hallways and at lunch, credited a new Ulster County‑funded partnership for helping chronically absent students return to class, and described pilot plans to replace some end‑of‑year exams with student presentations.

The changes matter because leaders said the junior high’s chronic absenteeism fell from about 28 percent in an earlier year to 10 percent at the end of the 2023–24 school year, and school staff are trying to sustain that recovery while addressing screen‑time and social‑media harms inside the building.

Miss Veil described the current cell‑phone rule implemented this year: phones must be zipped in the front of a backpack or locked in a locker from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and are not permitted in hallways or at lunch. She said teachers and students worked on the policy in a series of meetings last year and over the summer that included parents and 16 teachers; about 11 parents participated in the summer Google…