Three secondary school principals at the Sept. 9 Natick School Committee meeting shared an update on efforts to limit student cellphone and electronics use during the day, and one cringey moment during the session perfectly illustrated just how distracting and tricky to control such gear can be: One principal interrupted her own comments to apologize when a voice sounded from her smartwatch. “Oh sorry… that would be my daughter calling me.”
Natick Public Schools in recent years has been tightening controls over electronic device use by students during school hours, and this year the school system aims to be more consistent in its classroom management practices.
Wilson and Kennedy Middle School leadership over the summer alerted families that there would be changes and encouraged families to put good practices in place at home in part to help students better accept school rules: “In our ongoing efforts to create a focused and distraction-free learning environment, we are implementing cell phone/smartwatch holders in each homeroom. Students will store their electronic devices in the holder at the beginning of the day and will leave them in the holder until the end of the day. This initiative aims to enhance student engagement and reduce distractions during instructional time.”
Parent reaction to the new system was largely well accepted, the principals said, and accommodations have been made on a case-by-case basis for kids who need phone access for medical or other specific reasons. Students are encouraged to use office phones to communicate on family matters.
While in the past students were required to put their cellphones away and power them off, those that weren’t powered off could still provide distractions by pinging or vibrating. Students would also be found to use their phones in bathrooms for gaming or other purposes.
Teresa Carney, principal at Wilson Middle School, said the cellphone rules were explained to students when they returned to school and that about 90% of students started putting their devices in classroom lockers (that’s tailed off a bit). Overall, the new rules have been helpful and staff/administration hasn’t been seeing many phones or devices until kids are leaving the building, she said.
“So overall I’d say it’s successful for now,” Carney said.
Kennedy Middle School Principal Jodie Cohen said that during a conference attended by administrators over the summer “everyone was talking about the cellphones practices that they were going to be putting in place at all the districts that were at that” in an effort to increase engagement and reduce distractions and related disciplinary issues. And in fact, about 80% of Kennedy staff says it has seen a noticeable difference in behavior with phones being put away for the day, Cohen said.
Kennedy’s principal last year had also looked into pouches that can be kept on a student’s person but are locked during the day, as some school districts are using these. But they’re pricey ($41K to outfit Kennedy alone with them, she said).
At the High School, where students have more freedom to come and go at certain times, use of cellphone phone “parking lots” (containers) in class are being encouraged. The school piloted cellphone parking lots in 9th grade English classes in spring of 2023 and then the phone holders were installed in all classrooms the following summer. Departments could decide whether to use the phone holders during the 2023-2024 school year, and encouraged by data from their use, the school seeks even broader acceptance this school year, said Principal Josepha Blocker.
“We do hear from kids that the fear of missing out kind of goes away when everyone’s phones are away because there’s nobody left to text you,” she said. Teachers have also noticed more small talk amongst students with teachers, she said.
Some staff would like to see the use of phone holders made mandatory in the student handbook, as they have a harder time requiring phone holder use without that backing. This is particularly true at the high school, where teachers change classrooms during the day and don’t want to be held responsible if a kid’s phone goes missing while the teacher isn’t in the room.
“A strong policy would be more beneficial,” Cohen said.
The School Committee, acknowledging its policy needs an update from the days of MP3 players, has asked its policy subcommittee to take a look at the topic this fall. When an actual update could be made remains to be seen, based on other policy work taking place.
Natick High has its open house set for Thursday, Sept. 26 from 6-8:30pm. Be sure to leave your phones & smartwatches at home.
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