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Student reps say phone policy rollout 'surprisingly well' as opening day feedback
Summary
Student board representatives told the board the new phone-policy transition has reduced classroom distractions and produced only a handful of phones in the first week, while suggesting expanded student feedback channels including digital suggestion forms and social-media polls.
Student board representatives told the Manchester-Shortsville school board the district’s new cell-phone policy has had a smooth start and encouraged more student feedback mechanisms.
"So far this year, it's gone surprisingly well," one student board rep said of the phone transition, noting they’d seen "maybe a handful of phones, maybe 3" during the first week and that the classroom environment felt less distracted. Students said teachers reported better student focus but also described minor downsides, such as the inability to use phones for ad-hoc data collection during a science experiment.
Student reps proposed adding digital feedback options — Google forms, social-media polls and monthly newsletter prompts — while keeping physical suggestion boxes in classrooms. They said the goal was to gather more representative student input across grade levels and to run biweekly prompts on targeted topics.
Board members thanked the students for their feedback, and staff said they will continue to monitor the policy and consider suggestions for addressing classroom activities that previously relied on phones.
