Board hears limited data on Chromebook use; parents urge less screen time and stronger parental controls
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Summary
District staff told the board that vendor tools (Custodio, LineWise/LionWise) give imprecise Chromebook-use data and that only about 16% of families use Custodio; parents and board members pressed for clearer policies on unstructured screen time, controls for holidays, and possible classroom-cart pilots.
District staff gave a preliminary report on Chromebook usage and monitoring tools and outlined next steps to improve data, communications and classroom practice.
Jen, a district administrator, told the board that currently available tools do not provide a comprehensive active vs. passive usage report. "We have 16% that are utilizing Custodio at this time," she said. Staff said Google does not provide the district with a detailed active-vs-passive usage breakdown and that a recently tested LionWise add-on (EdTech Insights) remains under development.
Building principals described how Chromebooks are intentionally used in classrooms: kindergarten and first grade have highly structured, supervised sessions; second and third grades average about an hour a week; and fourth and fifth grades may use devices about two hours a week for targeted practice. Middle school principals said Chromebook use is teacher-led and that unstructured lunch or before‑school use is limited — typically 5–10% of students at certain times.
Parents and the Parent/Guardian Advisory Committee urged stronger family controls and policy changes. Committee members recommended promoting better parental-control apps, switching custodial controls to parent‑controlled hours during holidays, reviewing whether elementary students should receive 1:1 Chromebooks, reintroducing dedicated typing/computer classes, and creating a stand‑alone AI literacy course. A parent representative, Kayla, asked the board to bring research on paper-based homework and screen-time effects back at a future meeting.
Staff said they will continue vendor outreach, collect more teacher and staff survey data (targeting higher response rates), solicit pilot sites for any device-checkout model, and return with an updated report and additional data at a future academic meeting.
