Student rep reports mixed feedback on school'wide cell phone policy; teachers report positive classroom effects

Adona, the student representative to the board, reported on Nov. 3 on student climate across the district and summarized feedback from a schoolwide survey about the high school's new cell phone policy. She said nearly 400 students and 45 teachers responded to the survey distributed before a school break.

Adona said student responses were ‘‘mostly indifferent’’ on several items, though a notable minority reported classroom benefits: "about 25% said that it did improve the quality of their learning." She described survey responses indicating increased peer conversation after the policy's implementation and that some students now use their phones more outside school hours, a possible substitution effect. Several students asked the district to allow phone access during study hall; Adona said more than half of the write-in responses suggested study-hall exceptions.

Teachers expressed stronger support for the change, Adona said. She relayed teacher survey results that ‘‘the phone policy has encouraged conversation and discourse in class’’ and that teachers overwhelmingly agreed ‘‘students are more attentive to lessons without their phones on hand.’’ Several teacher comments submitted on the survey called the policy one of the best things for school climate and morale.

Adona also raised a safety-related concern about the practice some teachers use of locking phones in cabinets called "phone hotels." A student comment quoted in the presentation said, "I don't like locking them up because in the case of an emergency, I can't grab it in case I need to contact safety." Adona recommended alternatives such as keeping phones out of students's sight but accessible on counters so a student could retrieve a phone quickly in an emergency.

Board members asked whether objective measures (for example, grade comparisons) had been examined. Adona said the student leadership team could not access that data but could request it from administrators and planned to repeat the survey at the end of the third quarter to track change over time. Administrators on the dais clarified that Chromebooks are available in study halls but are filtered and may block noneducational sites, whereas students sometimes want phone-only functions such as texting or personal apps that the district cannot permit on school-managed devices.

Superintendent-level staff and administrators present indicated the district can add specific sites to an allow list (for example, the Common App and Naviance) when requested, but broad entertainment or social categories remain blocked for bandwidth and policy reasons. The student rep and board members said they would pursue study-hall exceptions and revisions as appropriate in future policy discussions.