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Board hears plan to implement state cell-phone ban; district previews mobile storage "cabinet" solution
Summary
Following a statewide student cell-phone ban, Utica district leaders discussed implementation plans including mobile or wall-mounted storage cabinets (referred to informally as 'Megatron') that would house student devices during the day; board members and staff flagged logistics, inventory and aesthetic concerns and asked for community-ready communications.
Board members reviewed how the district plans to implement Governor Hochul's new school-day cell-phone policy and heard a facilities/maintenance presentation about proposed device-storage cabinets.
At the policy committee discussion, a board member summarized the state mandate: districts must adopt local policy to ban students' cell phones during the day. Maintenance and facilities staff presented a candidate mobile cabinet designed to store and track devices. A maintenance representative said the district is still working out collection and inventory procedures and noted there would be multiple cabinets to avoid bottlenecks, with each cabinet labeled so students know where to retrieve their device at dayend.
Board members raised practical concerns: whether units should be mobile or stationary, whether they should be sited outside in a "mobile" check-in (or inside by classroom entrances), and whether charging ports would be included. One member suggested the district's communications, equity and outreach committee create an aesthetic plan (murals or student art) to make the cabinets less foreboding.
Why it matters: Implementation of a statewide policy requires local operational planning (inventory, storage, staffing and parent/community outreach). The board asked administrators to provide a detailed plan and said the board would proactively publicize expectations before the new school year.
Next steps: Staff will continue procedural review, share tracking and placement solutions with the communications committee for community feedback, and return the final code-of-conduct language and implementation plan at a future meeting (public hearing on some code-of-conduct items is scheduled for June 24, 2025).
