School committee hears update on student cell-phone working group; members seek clear rules for teachers

Wilmington School Committee members on March 12 heard a progress update on a district working group studying student cell-phone use and possible policy changes.

Becky Brown, district staff and a member of the working group, told the committee that the group has consulted parents, teachers, students and administrators and used the Massachusetts Attorney General's toolkit as a starting point. "Teachers would like us to give them some guidance," Brown said, noting teachers feel "caught in the middle" when phones are used in class for noninstructional purposes.

The group has distributed multiple surveys intended to capture student, parent and staff views. Committee members said the data will be central to any recommendation. "Once we get the data and we look at the surveys and we look at the data, then we can kinda decide which direction we want," Brown said.

Several committee members stressed two priorities: (1) produce a single set of guidelines that relieves teachers of the role of day-to-day enforcers; and (2) consider different rules for younger grades. "I think any policy we decide on needs to be really just like give them what they need so this is not ... getting in the way of them doing the teaching they want to be doing," Mr. Golden, School Committee member, said. Multiple speakers said rules might be stricter in middle school than in high school.

Student representative Jackson Kiley told the committee he and other students have been explicit about how policies look from a student perspective; committee members praised his participation. Committee members also discussed related topics that may be part of longer-term work, including how technology and mental-health curricula intersect and whether policies should address wearables, earbuds and Chromebooks as well as phones.

Timeline and next steps described at the meeting: the working group will close surveys (the group discussed a March 10 closing date), review results at a subsequent meeting, and prepare recommendations for the School Committee. District administrators said any final policy or handbook changes would be communicated to families in advance of the fall semester; several members said they would prefer a thoroughly supported policy even if that requires extending the working-group timeline.

No formal vote was taken; the item was an informational update and the committee directed the working group to return with data and a recommendation.