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Parents urge Rhinebeck board to adopt phone-locking 'Yondr' pouches to curb classroom distraction
Summary
At a board retreat, parents and a teacher asked the Board of Education to adopt locking pouches (Yondr) and stricter cellphone rules to reduce distraction and improve safety, citing teacher data and a parent petition; no policy change was taken at the meeting.
Leslie Lam, a parent leader and former middle school teacher, used public comment at the Rhinebeck Board of Education retreat to urge the board to adopt a stricter district cellphone policy and to consider locking pouches such as Yondr for full-school-day use. "They reduce our academic focus. They interrupt our learning and erode real life connections," Lam said, arguing the district should "go big" and use the moment to change school culture.
Lisa Nadler, who said she is working with Lam at a nonprofit called IRL, told the board she and roughly 35 other parents signed a letter supporting Yondr pouches and raised the budgetary question of who would pay the roughly "$25 to $30 per pouch" cost. Nadler also said limiting phones could improve emergency response: in her remarks she said phone use during emergencies "can actually make children less safe" by prompting misinformation and parent rushes to campuses.
Stephanie Solano, a public school teacher and parent, told the board she had reviewed teacher data and described the current policy as failing in practice. "If they're saying it's not working, it's not working," Solano said, and she also urged the district to review Chromebook use in the youngest grades.
The board did not take formal action on cellphone policy at the retreat. Speakers asked the board and administration to explore options, identify possible budget lines, and return with proposals; no motion or vote related to Yondr or policy changes was recorded during the meeting.
Why this matters: Speakers tied classroom focus, student social development and emergency response to the district's cellphone approach. Parents and teachers pressed for a specific, implementable tool (locking pouches) while acknowledging cost and logistics questions that would need cabinet or board follow-up.
Next steps: Commenters asked for administration analysis and a budget estimate; Superintendent Michael Burke said he will review and present his year-one entry plan to the board and community, but the transcript includes no specific timeline or commitment for a cellphone-policy proposal.
