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Superintendent Bill McCarthy lays out multi-step tech plan; board, parents press for clearer limits on YouTube and phones
Summary
Superintendent Bill McCarthy presented a multi-year technology plan that calls for surveys, roundtables, tighter communications, and immediate steps including removing YouTube access for students and continuing phone pouch systems; parents urged clearer, class-level descriptions of how devices are used.
Superintendent Bill McCarthy presented the Hastings-on-Hudson Union Free School Districts technology committee report and a phased action plan, telling the Board on June 27 that the district must prepare students to be digitally proficient while limiting harmful or distracting uses of devices.
McCarthy said the committees near-term steps include a family, staff and student survey; targeted roundtables; clearer communications from each building about when and why devices are used; broader parent and student representation on the technology advisory committee; and a review of Chromebooks and device policies. "We have to begin to corral what's a bit of the wild wild west here within little nice Hastings," McCarthy said, urging a balance between preparing students for college and keeping screens from dominating instruction.
On immediate operational changes, McCarthy told the board the district is aiming to remove student access to YouTube on school-managed devices by the start of the fall term: "Immediately remove YouTube access for students. We think we can get there by the fall," he said. He also defended the classroom pouch system for mobile phones, which places phones in a pouch by the door on arrival and has worked "pretty well in the high school," while acknowledging enforcement challenges at the middle-school level.
Parents and community members who spoke during the meetings public-comment period welcomed the approach but pressed for more detail. Nicholas Baker, a parent, said the district should include parents in survey design and asked that the questionnaire present a full range of options so families can weigh trade-offs. "I think there's a lot of support to really getting rid of a lot of technology, particularly at FMS," Baker said, urging caution with Chromebook-heavy instruction in middle school.
Other commenters asked for an accessible summary online of the districts filtering policy and clearer, class-by-class examples of device use so parents can see when Chromebooks or phones are being used for instruction versus entertainment. Board members and administrators acknowledged trade-offs: some uses of video and online tools support instruction, but the district must set consistent expectations and guard against excessive screen time.
McCarthy said the tech plan will emphasize research-backed decisions and an explicit role for families: "The parent group met with, and thank you, Alex for making sure that happened," he said, noting parents provided research and evidence to the committee. He also flagged AI, social media harms and the need for strengthened digital-literacy instruction as priorities.
Next steps: the district will develop the survey and a set of headline communications for each building this summer, broaden advisory committee membership, and return with recommended policy language and implementation timelines in the fall. The board did not take a formal vote on policy changes at the meeting.
