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Parents press Batavia school board for clearer Chromebook rules amid reports of off-task use
Summary
Multiple parents urged the Batavia School District 101 board to limit in-class and at-home Chromebook use, ask the district to block YouTube on student devices, and create grade-level guidance. District staff said the issue will be addressed through curriculum committees, filtering tools, and annual reporting.
Public comment at the Batavia School District 101 board meeting centered on classroom Chromebook use, screen time and online safety, with several parents asking the district to set explicit, research-based limits and to restrict access to noninstructional sites.
Tom Mascia Cavallo, a parent, described spending a day observing students and said many spent large portions of class on games and YouTube rather than completing assignments. Keith Hussel, Haley Lamb and Ben Hanson gave similar accounts and cited concerns that technology is sometimes used as a default rather than for targeted instruction. Meg McDermott, co-founder of Distraction Free Batavia, said a petition has more than 600 parent signatures and asked when parents will be included in committee conversations. Kelly Vandermark reported an incident this year involving pornographic content appearing in a fourth-grade classroom and said that possibility argues for stronger browser restrictions.
Administrators and board members responded with details about the district’s current approach and next steps. Brad and other administrators said staff have engaged in COSN training and are using committee structures — curriculum, district coordinating council and professional learning committees — to continue conversations. The administration said kindergarten teachers set a 30-minute daily cap because full-day kindergarten is play-based and teams had representative access to those classrooms; other grade-level guidance is under discussion as curriculum adoptions proceed.
District technology staff noted Lightspeed is the district’s filtering system and that emerging tools could enable more fine-grained restrictions, but they also cautioned that implementation would require professional development. Trustees suggested an annual technology-use summary to track Chromebook minutes by level and to see whether new workbooks and curriculum adoptions reduce screen time. Several board members emphasized that the board wants effective instructional use of technology rather than technology for convenience or reward.
The discussion did not produce immediate policy changes; the board directed administration to continue committee work, refine the handbook/procedures for families, and present more-digestible district-level data on technology use in future reports.
