As another school year nears completion, a societal issue that continues to try to get in the way of educating our children — one that comes and goes like an itch that can never be scratched — returned at Monday’s District No. 2904 School Board meeting.
Tracy Area High School Principal Mandy Dibble presented the latest remedy for curbing the craving of smartphone use.
The district already has a detailed cell phone policy in place that, in many ways, has worked. However, it is the sentiment of school board members that because the policy lacks bite, even more needs to be done.
Introducing Yondr, a neoprene pouch big enough to fit a smartphone in it. The phone is placed inside the pouch, and a flap is folded over it. It supposedly cannot be pried open; Dibble had two students attempt to get a pouch open recently, and both failed to do so. Instead, the only way to access a device — a smartphone or Apple Watch — is to tap it the pouch against a specialized magnet.
“It seems to be working for other districts,” Dibble said. “I met with teachers … and every single one of them are on board. It eliminates that confrontation with students in the classroom. When we tried to break into the pouch and we couldn’t, I was sold.”
The phones would be pouched every morning and unpouched at the end of the day. Some local school districts send the pouches home with the students, while others do not, Dibble said.
“The teachers here said they would like to leave them in the homerooms,” she said.
The district’s current policy dictates that students must keep their phone in their blue locker, outside the classroom, from the start of the school day to the end of the day. Disciplinary action includes taking the phone away — the first offense is a one-day ban from a phone, and a second offense is five days; the penalty goes up in five-day increments.
“The way the current policy is written, there is no other consequence,” said Dibble. “I feel like we’re doing a good job with the policy we have, but I agree, there needs to be more teeth.”
While the intent of the pouches is to create a more productive learning environment by removing a distraction, school board members were on the fence about spending more than $8,000 on 316 Yondr pouches at this point.
“The current policy, there’s not a lot of discipline in it,” board member Jeff Knott said. “You’ve just got to hand in your phone, there’s no detention … they get it back at the end of the day.”
Knott said he would rather put the purchase off for the year and revisit the district’s cell phone policy.
“If we don’t have the language in our policy today for next year, I don’t see this as being big change from what’s going on,” he said. “There’s got to be more tough love within the policy” before they spend money on the pouches.”
Of course, as with any new potential cure-all, there is the notion that kids will find a way to get around the pouches. For example, some could bring a “burner phone” to school and claim that they’ve put their phone in the pouch, only to sneak in their actual live phone. Others may simply say they forgot their phone at home when in reality, it’s on their person in school.
Board member Jay Fultz said the pouches could go a long way to taking away one more thing for teachers to worry about.
“If we can take one more thing off their plate by having these pouches, I think that would be beneficial for our teachers,” he said. “If we can take away some of the confrontations between the teachers and the students, or the teachers and our administration, I think it would be worthwhile. But there does need to more teeth in our policy.”
The first reading of the district’s handbook policy is next month.
There is a discount on the pouches if they are purchased by Memorial Day. The board voted 4-3 to give the pouches a shot, with Taylor Hoffbeck, Knott and Ryan Verlinde voting against.
TAHS PRINCIPAL MANDY DIBBLE demonstrated how a Yondr cell phone pouched works at Monday’s school board meeting School board member Ryan Verlinde is shown to Dibble’s right. Photo / Per Peterson
