{"id":703220,"date":"2026-06-14T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T08:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703220\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T08:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T08:29:14","slug":"southern-colorado-school-board-considering-loosening-cell-phone-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703220\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Colorado school board considering loosening cell phone policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV) &#8211; The District 60 School Board is considering changing its cell phone policy to allow phones in the school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A task force recently provided the board with a recommended policy change, following a year of surveying the community and analyzing studies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Currently, District 60\u2019s cell phone policy requires students\u2019 phones to be off at all times inside the school and on school buses, except in certain situations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The school board is looking into letting students have their phones on during passing periods, lunch time and at the beginning and end of the school day. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Last time the board discussed the changes, there was quite a bit of hesitation, so parents are waiting to see what happens. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Parent, Meredith Winston, knows how too much screen time can impact a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s almost like an avoidance mechanism sometimes,\u201d said Winston. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The mom would like to see District 60 remain cell phone-free.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cDuring the passing time or during the lunch times, that could be a source of engagement for students to meet new people,\u201d said Winston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Winston said she also understands why other parents feel differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMost people are like, I really want to be able to have that direct line of access if there\u2019s an emergency,\u201d said Winston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Executive Director of <a href=\"https:\/\/stand.org\/colorado\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/stand.org\/colorado\/\">Stand for Children Colorado<\/a>, Krista Spurgin, reminds parents that they can still contact their child when a school has a phone ban. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe front offices are open; they are available for that phone call,\u201d said Spurgin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Spurgin acknowledges that change is hard, but said it\u2019s also necessary as technology evolves. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIf you ask students if they want a cell phone ban, the answer is going to be, of course, they don\u2019t. But if you ask students, are they distracted by their phones during learning time? Are they missing out on social interactions because their face is in their phone? The answer is going to be yes,\u201d said Spurgin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A sentiment shared by Executive Director at <a href=\"https:\/\/healthiercolorado.org\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/healthiercolorado.org\/\">Healthier Colorado<\/a>, Joshua Ewing:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cCell phones are a distraction, and they lead to challenges in the classroom, less engagement with our peers, and we want to set our young people up for success,\u201d said Ewing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The recommended policy change was partially influenced by surveying the community. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Winston hopes the board also considers the data that is out there as well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAn objective reality is what often makes change and is usually most significant for best practice and the development of students,\u201d said Winston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This conversation was happening around the same time the Denver Public Schools Board voted to ban student phone use inside its schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In Southern Colorado, District 11 also has a full bell-to-bell phone ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">District 20\u2019s policy states that \u201cunless expressly permitted by a teacher for instructional purposes, the use of electronic communication devices within the classroom is not permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Neither of these districts is looking at changes to their policies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">District 60 said they don\u2019t have a comment on the proposed new policy until the board makes a decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The next school board meeting is scheduled for June 23rd, where a second reading of the proposal is expected to happen, and possibly a vote. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KKTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV) &#8211; The District 60 School Board is considering changing its cell phone policy to allow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[165,74],"class_list":["post-703220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}