cell-phone-on-wood

cell-phone-on-wood

Newton Public Schools will be implementing the Yondr pouch program at all middle schools to cut down on students’ phone usage in the classroom.

Students will be required to keep their phones inside Yondr pouches the entire school day. When they enter the school, the pouches will lock. Exceptions will be made for students with health issues that are monitored through mobile apps.

F.A. Day Middle School and Newton North High School had previously conducted a pilot program with Yondr pouches last school year. Day Middle School still uses the Yondr pouch system.

Mayor Ruthanne Fuller was able to obtain earmark funds from state senator Cindy Creem so that all middle schools in the district would be supplied with Yondr pouches.

“I deserve a little bit of credit for reaching out to Sen. Cindy Creem, but I want to give her credit, she specifically put an earmark into the state budget for this,” she said during Monday night’s school committee meeting.

Since receiving the funding, the district has coordinated with administrators from other middle schools to replicate the Yondr program currently in place at Day.

Gene Roundtree, the assistant superintendent for secondary and special education, updated the school committee on the process in a memo sent on Jan. 13.

“Our NPS Yondr representative completed site visits to Bigelow, Brown, and Oak Hill on Wednesday, January 8th,” he wrote.

During these visits, the representative worked with administrators to find spaces for devices that could unlock Yondr pouches when students leave school premises.

Roundtree said that staff, students and parents will complete orientation sessions in the next two weeks, informing them how the program will work.

According to school superintendent Anna Nolin, the Yondr program is expected to be fully implemented by Jan. 27.

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