001uh we have an update on the cell phone free instructional environment Dr Swift thank you uh Madam president and members of the board uh we are uh delighted this evening to just bring a very brief update on our work to really prioritize and lift up the work of our teachers and students inside our classrooms across Lawrence Public Schools and to lift that work up by uh reducing and removing removing the distraction of cell phones in the classroom I just want to thank everyone across the system uh who have joined together really to make progress on something we know that the research uh supports supports uh that reduction of the distraction of Technology uh because of uh academic achievement and growth our critical Mission and then also uh because of of mental health and social emotional
002Wellness something that we're very well aware of particularly with the Surgeon General coming out uh to issue a concern uh not too long ago uh about uh the risk and the dangers of social media so we really are out to reduce uh the distractions we've been on this uh the board was on this last year and then during the fall we really geared up to bring things to fruition so uh just a little bit of preparation back on I don't know why I'm not getting uh to turn I'm pointing pointing it at you I clicked off it okay no worry there we go uh back on December 9th just a little context to remind folks the board uh past uh policy jcaa cell phones and electronic devices really uh the component here is that classrooms
003will be cell phone free during the instructional day to ensure productive respectful and safe learning environment throughout the district so I've asked our directors of schools JC Roberson at elementary Dr Wayman Irvin at secondary to really just give us a very brief update on how it's going as you're aware members the third quarter was really about learning and practicing and developing a new habit uh lots of research says it takes a a long time to change a habit to break a habit to develop a new habit so that was third quarter now that we're in the fourth quarter we really are uh full implementation and seeing how our students are doing with this expectation now while we're accomplishing uh that work at secondary uh Miss Roberson and the elementary team have been busy analyzing and
004really were tasked as you recall members to bring us back a recommendation as we move forward for school year 25 26 and our guidelines around the use of Technology with our youngest students preschool through fifth grade now um no drum roll needed here because their work is still in progress but I will just give you a heads up and Miss Roberson will share more that we really are seeing uh a fruitful area to improve our work with students by reducing the time on technology particularly preschool School through second grade preschool through third grade just really seeing um that that move that we made particularly during covid to make sure that every child had a device at all times it was necessary then uh but we're seeing uh really that it's time to turn the page
005Miss Roberson help us out with that with that work all right thank you so much uh good to see all of you again um our objectives for spring semester as you will recall we to identify our current practices really um we challenged our coaches and our principals at the elementary level to um walk classrooms look at uh current practices so we can really get a good landing spot from for where we are and then establish shared expectations and then measure the impact of those shared expectations um as we move into um next year thank you Dr Swift so some observations what we learned um these are not uh anything that we wouldn't expect so screen use is highest during indoor recess remember all those snow days and then days following we um saw that during
006a preferred activity time um and then at the end of the day um students show short attention spans resist those transitions off the devices even if they're going to recess and um they're really attached to those digital tools um teachers expressed that they needed support with um engagement Str iies curriculum balance and non-te management strategies especially during small group instruction and then our work as we move on um we're really working to support those digital literacy uh skills but prioritizing Hands-On social developmental learning um experiences lots of research as Dr Swift says outlined there um and our goal really um at lower L is to focus on play teacher-led learning face-to-face interaction um and then Upper Elementary really um using a progressive model um and going for a more structured academic use for research for
007projects literacy math tasks preparing them for that Middle School transition um our team is working really really hard and really diligently and we are pretty close to really outlining a guidance document for our Elementary staff and so more updated guidance will be coming soon but this is where we're we're landing and um Lots of support lots of excitement for this at the elementary level thank you would the board prefer uh questions at each level or shall we Barrel on to the end here each level do we have questions about the elementary level to start um so given that the kid like when kids are given the option that's what they're picking like for that free activity time is there any discussions about eliminating that as an option yes and you know going coming out of
008covid um that was um one option and we have spent over the last five years just really kind of oops sorry honing down those options when that is chosen and so now we're ready to take the next step into um eliminating that Al together from those preferred activity times from those kind of choice menus of you know rewards and just making sure that the time that we are using it it is for instructional gain and instructional imp impact and then um really focusing back on those interactions those face-to-face um you know Hands-On sort of things awesome so um I know that teachers know how to do this uh so I I'm I'm asking this question as more of like a resource question anything they might need from the board but when you when you listed
009the times where um teachers are more are students are more likely to be engaged in those activities those are probably also times where you might see increases in behavioral challenges or just out of they're tired they're hungry you know that it's the end of the day whatever so I'm wondering um are there as you're going through and making assessments about what it'll look like in a elementary space without one-on-one devices um are you also calculating or considering maybe calculating not the word um what what you might need from the forward in terms of resources or absolutely and this is part of a the comprehensive Elementary um experience thinking through um hopefully students will have two opportunities for specials and movement okay two recesses and so really kind of looking at this and as a comprehensive
010approach and one thing um getting those things like board games back out math manipulatives out kind of um re looking at the whole system and so yes to answer your question while we look while we are working through this there there may be some materials or things that we we might need um but it you know all of our teachers are really good at these things and Co kind of got us going a different way and we're all ready to yeah come back to Center and and get back to it so um I guess I would just I know I can so I think my job as board president is to kind of read the board and I'm sure you've read that we're very enthusiastic about this work and the endeavors that you're uh undertaking
011as it relates to this um particular area so I would just hope that we would hear from Administration and from teachers about what they need if there's something that comes up you're not expecting so of course thank you thank you and Dr Wayman Irvin is coming to share with us a little bit about our secondary progress uh to prioritize the instructional environment through the reduction of cell phone distraction good evening members of the board uh Madam president Dr Swift superintendent uh our Middle School instructional time uh cell phone guidance uh we really want them to have the cell phones not visible uh at the middle school level but it was also a a issue about the or what concern I would say about the lunchroom so the the middle school principls have decided not to
012allow students to have the cell phones at lunch but they do allow depending on their behavior for those fun days on Fridays if possible the Middle School consensus based off the principles is consistency and Clarity of expectations are key to the success of the cell phone policy uh they want to still establish those healthy personto person interactions and habits from our cell phone policy and also focus on engagement uh strategies to support teachers inside of the classroom for Middle School lunch some of our Middle School uh principles implemented lunch conversation cards so they didn't have the cell phon so how do we engage our students to get back to talking towards each other so here are some things that a couple of questions that they had students to talk about just to get that conversation
013uh back started just like what uh Miss Robinson said prior to co students were talking let's get back to the center let's let's talk about our conversation how do you read person people's faces emotions the words that they use so here are about 10 questions that uh one particular Middle School use and also some pictures as well as students are engaged in those talks for our high school cell phone policy there's the Clause that you see B in bold it says unless you utilize for a specific instructional purpose we do have those classes that need to use the cell phones like Journal journalism the iPhone was probably the best choice than the iPad so they're allowed to use the instructional devices during that time period we did do some walkth through data uh when the
014policy passed back in December we all our instructional uh administrators decided to we decided to do the observations we need a foundation where are we in December once this policy passed as you can see in Lawrence High School December 2024 uh they visit 23 classrooms 445 students 17 175 cell phones were visible by 39% we came back in February after the first nine weeks and you can see there's a drop from 39 to 3% 13 cell phones were visible at free state 17 classes 340 students 87 87 cell phones with visible 25% back in December that's our Baseline come back in February after the first nine weeks that observations again 17 classes 221 students four cell phone are visible down to 2% as you can see there's another graph you can see the dramatic drop
015from 175 to 13 from 87 to 4 from 39% to 3 25% to 2 a survey was sent out to both high schools uh to get feedback at least the feedback from the staff uh these are some notable quotables from uh the secondary it's only effective because everyone is consensually enforcing it uh less behaviors fewer power struggles over pulling the phone up to work on functioning skills it's amazing to witness and I'll contribute that to our staff our principales uh really laying the groundwork of talking about this each and every day as we led up to the Poli been approved and also afterwards in informing our parents as well uh one staff member say stay firm in this policy find ways to support teachers it is truly the best thing for students I support the
016policy and feel having fun fun fun fun phone Friday was a good [Laughter] idea so I appreciate uh both the elementary and the secondary progress that we've made uh here are kind of our next steps as we look down uh fourth quarter of this school year we will continue to refine our practices our Focus now I'm I'm so proud of the before and after picture we're all inspired by the changes at elementary and we know from research like the anxious generation uh that really uh tack engagement to at too young of an age really rewires the brain and we want to protect our students from that so we are now looking at how to sustain uh cell phone free instructional environment over time we don't want to grow loose on this we want to raise
017a generation of young people who know how to engage with each other and understand the discipline the self-discipline the classroom discipline of putting the cell phone away we want to gain additional Clarity on the Progressive grade level expectations and particularly the elementary team's going to refine that approach uh preschool through fifth grade to get us right on target moving forward um secondary is interested in rining their Progressive model of support and that learning cycle for students who may struggle with the actual ual Act of getting that cell phone put away I I'm happy to say because of the way we went about this that's not a large percentage and yet we want to attend to those places where that's happening and then fourthly we feel like it's really important to educate ourselves as a school
018community on the why of this it's not because we dislike cell phones it's because we love and prioritize the critical mission of our teachers and our staff during that instructional time what they do is sacred we want to hold that up and not allow a cell phone to distract from it so um we've not achieved all of our goals during third quarter with our book studies and our movie screenings and we want to really get back on that because I don't feel like we're just raising a generation of children children I feel like we're educating a generation in our community around how important this is so watch for those announcements coming up because we really want I I know all of us when we're in Target or Walmart uh we see small Stu small children
019being soothed and entertained um with the technology device and no judgment here any parents that's been in a Target knows how uh fraught that situation is you want to keep your child you know entertained if you can but we just feel like uh this isn't just work for today it's work for tomorrow and the generations that will follow to really I love the term bring us back to Center on our priority of the instructional environment and so with that members we're open to any other questions I didn't say it in the intro but I want to add it now my deep gratitude for a board that was courageous to lead the way on this effort there are many districts that have not taken this step in across the country and their students are suffering as
020a result of it so thank you for your leadership