BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 It\u2019s been more than a month of no complaints from parents or major disciplinary issues since Bethlehem Area School District initiated a new electronic devices policy, Superintendent Jack Silva said Monday.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School Board’s Curriculum Committee got an update from administrators on how the district\u2019s policy \u2014 one officials have said emphasizes a \u201clearning-focused environment\u201d and minimizes disruption \u2014 has panned out in the classroom so far.<\/p>\n
Liberty High School Principal Brandon Horlick said the new device rules initially were met \u201cwith some reluctance.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like while students might not like the idea of being electronic device-free during instructional timeframes, they\u2019ve risen to the occasion,\u201d Horlick said.<\/p>\n
Horlick said 808 students, or 33% of LHS\u2019s student body, were asked what they thought of the new policy:<\/p>\n
35% said they feel somewhat or much more focused during classJust over 30% said they feel their participation has somewhat or greatly improvedJust under 39% said they felt their academic performance has somewhat or greatly improved28% said their relationships and interactions with teachers and classmates have somewhat or greatly improved\u00a0\u00a0Upwards of 95% of teachers surveyed felt more focused.’Keeping the same messaging’<\/p>\n
Freemansburg Elementary School Principal Ashlee Woodson said she\u2019s seen no major incidents and plenty of support from the parents’ side of things so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just keeping the same messaging and moving on,\u201d Woodson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a cell phone policy \u2014 it\u2019s a focused-learning policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northeast Middle School Principal Theo Quinones<\/p>\n
She said the current program lets her teachers limit what websites students can access and even includes the ability to put students in a \u201cpenalty box\u201d for not using the district\u2019s electronic devices properly.<\/p>\n
Northeast Middle School Principal Theo Quinones said, \u201cIt\u2019s not a cell phone policy \u2014 it\u2019s a focused-learning policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quinones said there\u2019s been a few dozen instances of devices being confiscated, but that includes just seven cases of students in their second offense and a lone eighth-grader who\u2019s been caught three times.<\/p>\n
‘More safety and security’<\/p>\n
Under the new policy, elementary and middle school students can\u2019t use their cell phones at all during the school day. <\/p>\n
High school students are allowed cell phone time during the day, but only during non-instructional times.<\/p>\n
Students\u2019 phones must be silenced and placed in a designated location when the bell rings at the start of each class. <\/p>\n
If a student leaves the classroom, such as to go to the bathroom or the front office, the phone stays.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Jack Silva said the new electronic device rules \u201celaborately created a structure that I think is a little bit more safety and security to the students and the parents that they\u2019re feeling.\u201d <\/p>\n
Policy exceptions require approval from the school principal \u2014 such as students needing their devices for documented medical, behavioral or special needs; or for communicating as part of a volunteer fire company, ambulance or rescue squad.<\/p>\n
Silva said the new rules \u201celaborately created a structure that I think is a little bit more safety and security to the students and the parents that they\u2019re feeling.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said parents and guardians also should always feel comfortable calling the school\u2019s front office to contact their child if need be.<\/p>\n
‘All positive out of the classroom so far’<\/p>\n
As of Oct. 1, school district officials have completed 2,189 \u201clearning walks,\u201d in which one or more non-approved electronic devices were observed 5.5% of the time in the classrooms of secondary schools and 2.3% in elementary schools.<\/p>\n
The data includes 1,410 secondary and 779 elementary trips; that number does not reflect instances of a device seen in the hallway or cafeteria, officials said.<\/p>\n
BASD Assistant Superintendent Maureen Leeson said the walks were a way \u201cfor us to kind of gain perspective, provide feedback on an ongoing basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might see these numbers tick up a little bit over time, but I think what\u2019s important is that we as administrators remind, in a supportive, restorative manner, what the boundary is and we are just consistent in our procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School District Assistant Superintendent Maureen Leeson <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be my expectation that we might have a few students push some boundaries,\u201d Leeson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might see these numbers tick up a little bit over time, but I think what\u2019s important is that we, as administrators, remind in a supportive, restorative manner, what the boundary is and we are just consistent in our procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
BASD Board member Silagh White said, \u201cI think this is going to be really helpful for so much social and emotional learning. So thank you for your consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
BASD Board President Michael Faccinetto said, \u201cAll positive out of the classroom so far is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounded like, for students, that it just felt better; the atmosphere and the culture in school was better,\u201d Faccinetto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m curious, as we get in more, if there is any correlation between discipline referrals as we get more data on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 It\u2019s been more than a month of no complaints from parents or major disciplinary issues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3862,3863,3864,153,3865,155,154,3866,3867,1434,635],"class_list":["post-4214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-basd-cell-phone-policy","tag-basd-electronic-device-policy","tag-basd-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-area-school-district-cell-phone-policy","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-schools-cell-phone-policy","tag-bethlehem-schools-news","tag-jack-silva","tag-will-oliver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}