August 26, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti | Waterbury Roundabout
Harwood’s plan to go cellphone-free this school year has hit a slight bump in the road just ahead of school starting this week.
In a memo to families on Monday with various back-to-school reminders, Harwood Union Middle/High School Co-Principals Laurie Greenberg and Megan McDonough shared that the pouches the district has ordered for students to store their phones during the school day have not arrived yet.
The school district is purchasing special cases for students to store phones, Bluetooth earphones and any watches that connect to the internet. Upon entering school until dismissal, students are to place their devices in the case which is sealed with a magnetic closure. Students in 9th through 12th grades are to put the cases in their backpacks or lockers for the day; seventh- and eighth-graders are to put them in their lockers only.
“The manufacturers from Yondr have informed us that the delivery of our pouches has been delayed,” the principals wrote. “The bright side is this will give us the opportunity to practice and focus as a community on the routine of putting our phones away before we learn how to use the magnets.”
Schools in the Harwood district begin classes on Tuesday, Aug. 27. At Harwood Middle/High School, seventh- and ninth-graders attend on the first day as a customary transition. The entire 7-12th-grade student body will attend starting on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
School leaders and staff have presented the new routine around the devices as a way to promote more engagement, learning and socialization among students during the school day. They bolstered their presentations with research showing the prevalence of distractions from cellphones in schools and harmful effects on student well-being.
Instead of the Yondr pouches, students will be given a manila envelope with their name on it to use until the pouches arrive, school leaders explained. “The same expectations and procedures will be followed with the exception of using the magnets to lock and unlock our pouches,” the principals said.
Students who don’t have phones, or who will leave them home may opt out of the routine with parents filling out a short form.
The memo also emphasizes that the same expectations regarding phones and consequences will apply when using the envelopes rather than the Yondr pouches. Those are listed in the Harwood Handbook and were shared in an Aug. 9 Family Newsletter. A memo from July 25 outlines the rationale behind the new policy with details listed in a frequently-asked-questions format.
The school district has allocated the final $22,000 of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) COVID-19 pandemic recovery funds to pay for just under 670 of the locking cellphone cases made by the California company, Yondr. The pouches are used in schools and performance venues to limit access to phones. The supply would allow each of the school’s approximately 580 students to receive a pouch and have extras for replacements. The cost also includes the magnetic locking/unlocking stations.
School officials did not reply to an inquiry Monday afternoon about when delivery is expected for the cases. This Wednesday at 6 p.m., the Harwood School Board begins its regular meeting schedule after its summer break. Final approval of the appropriation for the cellphone pouches is on the board’s meeting agenda.
