Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Screen Time Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
School board backs pen-and-paper emphasis, urges parents to curb recreational screen time
Summary
At a recent Watertown Unified School District board meeting, members expressed unanimous support for using pen and paper in classrooms when possible and urged parents to limit recreational screen time outside school, citing data on student impacts.
Board member Dan Volner said the Watertown Unified School District board concluded at its monthly meeting that classroom instruction should emphasize handwriting and paper-based work where practical. "The board unanimously supports using pen and paper as often as possible in the classroom," Volner said.
Volner said the board does not want to "eliminate screen learning but to use it only when necessary," and flagged district review of data on students' screen exposure as the meeting's most impactful discussion. He added that "the big damage is being done to developing brains is mostly from recreational screen time usage," and noted much of that time occurs "outside of school and outside of our purview." Volner urged greater parental partnership to address out-of-school screen use.
The board statement was presented as a unanimous position by Volner; the meeting recording is available on the district website for full context. No formal ordinance or detailed new classroom policy text was provided in the remarks summarized at the meeting.
