Both Bloomington-Normal school districts welcomed students back to school this week with new student conduct policies regarding the use of cell phones.
District 87 changed its policy for Bloomington High School to ban them throughout the school day. Unit 5 refreshed its policy to keep student phones away during class in all but a few circumstances, and to make rules clearer.
Unit 5
"Responsible use" was the emphasis when the Unit 5 superintendent sent an email message Monday, explaining the updated policy to families of students.
The policy approved in July restricts personal device use in classrooms to only allow it if a teacher gives permission and it is being used for educational purposes. Phones are allowed outside the classroom, meaning students can use them before and after school, during lunch and between passing periods.
Previously, Normal Community and Normal West high schools had what was seen as unclear rules regarding phones. It was left more to individual teachers to decide their own classroom policy and when a student needed to put their phone away.
“What the staff [was] experiencing frustration with is a lack of enforcement of any type of policy about how students can use their phones during the day, and if phones are disruptive and staff refer students to the office, there is sort of a general sentiment amongst the staff that there are no consequences for students,” said Julie Hagler, president of the Unit Five Education Association [UFEA].
“We're tightening some of those practices up based on feedback that we've had,” said superintendent Kristen Weikle.
Violations of these expectations may be addressed with: redirection and reminders; contacting home; loss of privileges (i.e. extra curricular activities, dances or field trips); detention, temporary student removal from class; storing the device in a separate secure place; or requiring a parent or guardian to pick up the device from school.
Parents were asked to set boundaries with their children and help them understand new school expectations. They were asked to ensure their child knows how to "put their phone on silent" and to turn off notifications. They also were asked to call the school office to relay important messages to their kids — rather than calling or texting them during the school day.
“My request to parents was knowing that it's going to take all of us to make it effective,” said Weikle. “It's going to take the educators in the classroom enforcing it, it's going to take the administrators enforcing the rules, and it's going to take parents and family support in having conversations with their students and then being supportive of the school.”
Junior high and elementary school students will follow a “silent and away” policy in Unit 5. Some teachers from Normal Community and Normal West requested the policy expand to the high school level.
“That policy has been very well-enforced by administration and staff,” said Hagler, who taught nearly three decades at Normal Community.
Instead, Weikle said more flexibility was allowed to teach responsible use of personal devices.
It remains to be seen whether the new policy works better for students and staff. Unit 5 students returned to class Thursday. Hagler said the new policy hopefully will make a difference.
“It's really going to come down to how that policy is enforced and administered by the administration in the two high schools here in town,” she said.
District 87
Bloomington High School opened its school year Monday with a new ban on cell phone use. Students will have to keep their phones in their lockers from the beginning of the school day to the end.
“They absolutely shouldn't have them out in classrooms. And that is a switch for high school kids. In the past, it was perhaps a room-to-room difference, and students definitely were on their phones a lot during passing periods,” said Julie Riley, president of the Bloomington Education Association union. Riley is a retired teacher who taught seventh grade at Bloomington Junior High School.
The same policy is enforced at the middle and grade school levels. While the first day with all students was Monday, Riley said there were few complaints about phone issues when freshman students first attended school on Aug. 15.
The District 87 school board approved the student handbook language in April.
“It was important to both sides that they had a plan that everyone could live with because if you have a policy that either teachers are not willing to follow or administrators are not willing to enforce, then they tend to flop,” said Riley.
