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Triton committee keeps period-by-period phone policy as pilot, discusses enforcement bumps

Triton Regional School Committee · December 11, 2025
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Summary

The superintendent told the Triton Regional School Committee the district is using a period-by-period phone policy (phones allowed between classes and at lunch, locked during academic periods) and said school and family feedback does not support a full bell-to-bell pilot; members pressed on enforcement, recording and family-contact concerns.

The Triton Regional School Committee heard an update Dec. 10 on the district’s high-school cell-phone approach and discussed whether to pilot a stricter, bell-to-bell collection model.

The superintendent told the committee the district implemented a modified “period bell-to-bell” model this year: students may have phones between classes and at lunchtime but must lock them during academic periods, including study periods. “The plan all along has been we would start the year with… period bell to bell,” the superintendent said when summarizing staff, school council and student council feedback.

School council and student council conversations, the superintendent said, have not supported piloting a full bell-to-bell collection (collecting phones at arrival and returning them at dismissal). The administration said the current model is “working well” overall but acknowledged rollout issues that required clarification and enforcement adjustments.

Board members raised enforcement questions, citing teachers who need to use technology in class and examples of students recording in VTV or other classes. The superintendent described those as “bumps” in enforcement that have improved over time but still require follow-through.

Members also noted family concerns about being unable to reach a student during the day and asked about exceptions for students who use earbuds for quiet time at lunch. The superintendent said those family-contact concerns are valid and that conversations with families about expectations (and how absences are coded) continue.

No committee action was taken; the superintendent said any pilot of a full bell-to-bell approach would need to be brought back to the committee as a modified policy for interim or permanent adoption.