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Students present club work and press board on phone policy and AP verification
Summary
Marshwood High students described civil rights, math, Interact, Hawk Buddies and Spanish clubs and used the meeting to press the board on the proposed phone policy, citing concerns about mental health impacts, limited student input and technical barriers to AP score verification tied to personal devices.
Students from Marshwood High School presented an overview of in-school clubs and activities and raised concerns about a proposed phone policy under board consideration.
Olivia Woods, a senior and member of the civil rights team, described the team’s mission to reduce bias-motivated behavior and noted regular activities, monthly spotlights and outreach to exchange students. Interact Club officers said their service projects include food pantry volunteering, 50 monthly sandwich lunches for Crossroads and fundraising (about $500 at one festival and $300 raised for polio awareness). Evan, a junior, described Spanish Club’s cultural programming and test-prep support. Board members and administrators thanked students for speaking and applauded the breadth of extracurricular offerings.
In a substantive exchange about the district’s cell phone policy—currently between first and second reading—students raised several concerns. Zora, representing student government, said mental health and bullying are central to the discussion and that students felt the policy rollout was too rapid: "a lot of people said that they felt this decision had already been made," she said, and that perception reduced students’ willingness to engage. Students also described technical barriers: several AP or college-platform verification flows require personal emails or phone numbers, creating repeated phone access during school days for test verification.
A board member responded that the student voice is valued and that the board wants to hear and incorporate student feedback even if final outcomes differ from student preferences.
Why it matters: The phone policy affects daily classroom routines, mental-health considerations and students’ ability to access college and AP exam systems that rely on personal contact methods.
What’s next: Education policy and wellness committees will meet to incorporate public and student input with a target second reading of the policy at the Dec. 3 board meeting.
