Cloverdale schools describe stricter cell‑phone enforcement, Aeries tracking and daily confiscations at CHS

School leaders and staff described how Cloverdale Unified enforces its mobile‑device policy and the operational burden of daily enforcement.

Campus supervisor Sean (speaker 9) said teachers log classroom incidents in Aeries and that the district uses progressive discipline: warnings, confiscation during class (returned end of day), and parent pickup for repeat offenders. "It's in Aeries," he said when asked how offenses are tracked.

High school staff (speaker 7) and Sean described a system that began as an Excel log and now records repeated violations; some students have their phones confiscated for extended periods and a few have phones withheld for the rest of the school year. The principal (speaker 7) warned the lost instructional time and staff effort are significant: "Sean starts his day every day with walking around and collecting all those phones."

A presenter recounted a study conducted while vice principal at another school that counted the number of notifications students received during class; he reported average classroom tallies in the thousands ("an average class of 30 people, 3,000 notifications"). Trustees discussed possible options including pouches or a full‑day ban but noted enforcement is complicated by an open campus, extracurricular activities and resource limits.

Why it matters: Board policy aims to reduce classroom disruptions and improve engagement; enforcement requires staff time and creates tradeoffs between discipline and instructional coverage. Trustees asked staff to continue tracking incidents and consider support options for next year.