During the final week of school in May, students in the San Dieguito Union High School District turned in their Chromebooks for the summer, hopefully swapping their screens for sunshine, beach days and relaxation.
Throughout the school year, the district aims to achieve a balance with technology and Chromebook use, understanding its importance in providing students with a broad course of study that prepares them for college and careers while still recognizing concerns around extended screen time and mindless scrolling. At the school board’s May 21 meeting, they had an informational discussion about student screen time and the district’s “effective and intentional use” of the Chromebooks, at the request of board member Rimga Viskanta.
The district transitioned to a 1:1 Chromebook model in the 2020 school year, in the middle of the pandemic and distance learning. The purpose was to provide a district-wide standard device that promoted equity and access for all students.
“Our transition to a 1:1 device model was necessary and appropriate at the time. Now, with the benefit of experience, it is reasonable to ask whether we may have moved from ensuring access to assuming constant use,” Viskanta said in her comments at the May board meeting. “It would be valuable to bring these discussions more visibly into the public sphere so families and the broader community can better understand current practices and help shape how our policies evolve.”
In antecdotes from parents, the board has heard concerns about the amount of student screen time during the school day, parent visibility into student logins, and ensuring that tech is being used to supplement classroom teaching rather than replace it. The impact that social media platforms have on teenagers is another obvious concern for many.
“As a society, we are still learning how to live with technologies that have tremendous power for connection and learning—but also the potential to amplify anxiety, conflict and distraction,” Viskanta said. “Adults today at least have a memory of life before constant connectivity. Students today are growing up without that same contrast.”
District Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Online Programs Lisha Brunache said the teachers, not the tech, remain the center of instruction in the classroom—and teachers are making deliberate choices about how and when to use digital support. It’s all about finding a balance, she said.
“Our goal is not maximizing screen time, our goal is really maximizing learning,” Brunache said. While screen time looks different in every classroom, she said students are mostly using Chromebooks for active tasks like collaborating on a writing assignment, creating multimedia to demonstrate what they know or to access embedded learning content supports like translation features.
“Passive use is what we’re trying to limit in our classrooms,” Brunache said of activities such as open screen tabs that can be distracting, the scrolling of social media and unstructured video content.
Chromebooks are also useful in supporting students beyond the school day, such as providing digital access to textbooks with interactive search tools, clickable glossaries and hyperlinked multimedia explanations of concepts. They can also be helpful in test prep for Advanced Placement exams which are all given on the devices. San Dieguito has one of the largest participation rates in the country for AP exams, with 10,324 exams taken in 2025 with a 91% pass rate.
In May, the district rolled out the new GoGuardian parent app which expands parental controls on the Chromebooks. According to the district’s Director of Technology Joel VanHooser, parents can now pause the internet on district devises at home, block certain websites or set availability hours for the Chromebook, helping to build healthy habits.
The GoGuardian internet filter is always on for district-issued Chromebooks, following the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) regulatory requirements and blocking harmful or distracting content whether the device is at home or at school. In the classroom, VanHooser said teachers using the app can lock students into specific approved website and monitor students screens.
Williams said she’s heard lots of praise from parents since the launch of GoGuardian, but students have expressed their own concerns, particularly about getting locked out of websites they argue might be needed for educational purposes. Canyon Crest Academy student board representative Ben Du, who will be attending UCLA in the fall, said some students also worry about their privacy with all of the teacher and parent monitoring. He admitted that the app works really well and joked that sometimes he wished it were a little less secure, as he would like to watch Netflix after he completes his assignments.
In the board’s discussion, Viskanta acknowledged that GoGuardian has been a helpful tool, however, she still thinks there is a conversation to be had about students especially in the lower grades and whether they always need to have a device in their hands. She encouraged the district to keep this dialogue open to ensure that “all tech usage is only intentional.”
As President Jane Lea Smith noted, there are some classes that just don’t need to be digital at all. One such example is Torrey Pines High School art teacher Katie O’Brien’s art classroom, where she encourages her students to leave the screens behind and create instead of consume. The teacher wrote, illustrated and self-published a book this year called “The Joy of Mindfulness with Dorie the Dog” helping to teach kids about gratitude, self-regulation and being present in the moment, not distracted by devices.
Graduating Torrey Pines student board rep Henri Tanghe shared his own personal gratitude for the district’s high school Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways, which offer classes that aren’t digitally based, like his automotive shop course.
“That’s all hands-on work and I think that’s great and speaks to the digital balance,” said Tanghe, who is headed to Georgetown University this fall. “I hope that more CTE classes can come to the middle school level, too to keep kids off their Chromebooks.”
More information can be found on the district’s technology hub at sites.google.com/sduhsd.net/sduhsdtechhub/for-families