This story by Jason Starr was first published in the Williston Observer on August 15.
Do phones and schools mix?
Champlain Valley School District leaders may be leaning toward ‘no’ on that question.
Under Interim Superintendent Adam Bunting, the district is convening a committee this school year to study the so-called “phone-free schools movement.” The committee, made up of teachers, parents, students and administrators, will make eventual recommendations to the school board about what the district’s cell phone policy should be for students.
The district is currently without an overarching policy, leaving it up to school principals to set standards. Williston Central School has an “away-for-the-day” standard, where students can bring phones to school but must keep them in bags or a school-provided locked location during the school day.
“In order to maintain our learning environment, electronic games, cell phones, Airpods, smartwatches, etc. are not to be carried or used during the school day,” the grade 3-8 school’s handbook states.
The policy gets looser as kids age into high school. CVU asks students to refrain from phone use during classroom time, but allows phone use in the cafeteria and library when students have unscheduled periods.
“We have not attempted to mitigate cell phone use during those times yet,” Bunting said. “We want to learn more. The research is pretty clear about the impact of cell phone use and social media on student mental health, in addition to that, just the impact of distraction on our learners. It’s important for our learners to be present.”
He said students can get derailed during the school day by a troubling text or social media message and have difficulty refocusing on academics.
According to Rep. Erin Brady, D-Chittenden, who serves as vice chair of the House Education Committee, most teachers would welcome stricter phone use policies. Brady works as a teacher at Colchester High School.
“It’s tricky at the high school,” she said. “It’s supposed to be put away during academic times, unless a teacher has allowed it. Sometimes kids use it for quick research or they’re filming something. In my experience, everybody has them on them, and everybody checks them fairly regularly.”
Brady said the current “away during academic time” standard is “very hard to enforce.”
“If they are physically on the students, you are going to have issues with them constantly,” Brady said. “They have to somehow be put away somewhere … It seems to me the only way it’s really going to work is if it’s all or nothing, and they are physically not in the classroom.”
Two Vermont high schools — Harwood Union and Thetford Academy — have announced phone-free policies for this school year. They are giving each student a lockable pouch in which to place their internet-connected devices upon entering the school. The pouches remain automatically locked until the student leaves the building.
“Students are required to bring their pouch to and from school each day and are responsible for their pouch at all times,” Harwood school administrators explained to parents in a July letter about the policy.
“Learning and social behavior improve drastically when students are fully engaged with their teachers and classmates,” the letter continues.
Earlier this year, the Senate Education Committee passed a bill that would set statewide phone-free school standards. The House education committee has not yet taken it up. Brady would welcome a state-level solution but said that “the biggest thing is how do you do it right without putting costs on schools.”
In trying to balance phone use with learning, CVU has tried a “Be Present” campaign that encourages students to value face-to-face interactions and remain present in academic spaces. Bunting said administrators will redouble those efforts this school year.
“When we stay vigilant and we have some collective effort around that, we make some real progress,” he said.
The idea of removing phones from schools has a strong champion in Angela Arsenault, a Champlain Valley School Board member representing Williston who also serves in the Legislature. Arsenault is involved in the Vermont chapter of the Phone Free Schools Movement, a national nonprofit.
In June, she introduced the topic at a meeting of the Champlain Valley School Board’s Policy Committee. The committee’s discussion spurred Bunting’s work to convene the phone policy committee. The committee’s report and recommendations are expected by the middle of the school year, Bunting said.
The issue will also be up for discussion at a September meeting of the school board.
“We aren’t rushing into a policy yet,” Bunting said. “Social media and cell phone use and the harmful impacts really are a community issue and we have to partner with our parents and our students on how we move forward thoughtfully.”
