A couple of years ago, Newton school officials decided to try out the Yondr pouch program—in which schools have students leave their mobile devices in Yondr pouches during class time—aimed at cutting distraction and drama from the classrooms.

How’s it going?

So far, so good, according to Dr. Gene Roundtree, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

”I’d say, the feedback has been very positive, that the electronic device policy has made a positive impact overall,” Roundtree said to the School Committee Monday night.

The policy was launched with an understanding that the administrative office would update the School Committee annually about it. Rountree said he had surveys distributed to staff members in the city’s middle and high schools, and the results show the program is working as intended.

A total of 207 middle school staff members responded, with 95 percent of them saying the policy is effective and that their students understand the expectations of the policy.

“Middle school staff did indicate that there is a degree to which students are distracted outside of class, in hallways and bathrooms,” Roundtree said.

F.A. Day Middle School piloted the cell phone pouch program for the 2023-2024 school year, and Principal Jacqueline Mann said her staff loves it because it keeps students present in their learning environment.

“It also eliminates some of the negative interactions that used to happen over cell phones,” Mann said. “When a student, like all of us, would have their cell phone close by, when they go off they would take a look at it, and that would cause a negative interaction.”

Even the students are getting used to it, Mann said. When the policy was launched, she had students show up at her door with a petition to reverse it. But this year, the students are ok with it.

“I see them talking to the incoming fifth graders saying, ‘You know, it’s  not so bad,’” she said.

Brown Middle School is newer to the game. That school started the Yondr pouch program last January and Principal Kimberly Lysaght said there’s been a big change for the better now that the students don’t have a phone beckoning them all day.

“Having it in their locker, it was tempting to go see if someone had texted them,” Mann said. “That’s gone, and they don’t have to think about that.”

Students in the high schools don’t use pouches. There’s an “off and away” policy, and students are asked to leave their phones in a container in the front of the classroom instead of locked away in pouches all day. But the idea is the same. And, it would seem, so are the results.

“It’s been a pretty dramatic positive shift in that direction,” Rob Greenfield, Newton North High School history teacher and digital literacy coordinator, said. “Especially with the younger grades. I think there’s been a trickle-up effect from the middle schools. Teachers are facing a lot less conflict.”

You can read the survey results and accompanying memo here.