School starts August 5 across Liberty County, and middle and high schoolers will get a brief grace period for their cell phones.
More than 11,000 students are expected to be in class in Liberty’s seven elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools. But the thousands of middle and high school students will be putting their cell phones away with the use of the new Yondr bags starting this year.
Dr. John Ryan, the school system director of instructional technology and media, said there is a policy already in place that states students cannot use their cell phones during class, and these pouches supplement that policy.
As the material from Yondr gets to the schools, Dr. Ryan said the system will set a date that puts the new policy in motion, once each school has all its pouches and locking stations in place. The company, he said, advised not putting the policy in place on day one of the school year.
“We don’t want to have a false start,” he said. “We want to make sure every school starts on the same day in the same way, following the same policy and procedure.”
Yondr, which has been providing the technology for 10 years, has its material in 27 countries and in nearly 2,000 schools across the U.S. In Georgia, DeKalb County is starting a pilot program and Marietta City Schools also will be banning cell phones for its middle school students.
“We were the forerunners, and a lot of people are jumping on this ship now,” Dr. Ryan said.
School board members approved a new cell phone policy that gives each middle and high school student a Yondr pouch in which to place their cell phone. The pouches have magnetic locks and only can be unlocked after the student passes by the magnetic triggers, which will be placed at exits just before the school day ends each day.
Yondr is working with each school on the best placement of the locking stations, Dr. Ryan told board members, and has provided Liberty County High School with some great ideas.
School system officials held two virtual meetings with parents in June and parents, guardians and students are getting information on the new cell phone and Bluetooth accessories procedures this week.
Board members wanted to make sure the new policy going into effect was done so uniformly across the middle and high schools.
“The superintendent had a meeting with the administrators and made it very, very clear,” Dr. Ryan said, “but once that implementation happens — we want to make sure students understand — that this will be clearly defined and be backed up all over the district.”
He added the beauty of the policy is its simplicity. For instance, students who may have multiple cell phones are asked to leave the others at home. They also are not allowed to bring any Bluetooth accessories. For those students who do not want to put their phone in a Yondr pouch, they will leave it at the school’s front office.
“After you do that three times, you don’t get to bring your cell phone at all,” Ryan said.
The system also put up 200 posters across its middle and high schools showing students how the pouches work and how they will use them.
Yondr’s own research shows that 83% of the schools using them showed an increase in student engagement and 74% saw an increase in student behavior.
“It is going to make a difference in our school system,” Superintendent Dr. Franklin Perry said. “It is not a punishment. Rather than rolling this out and making them think this is a punishment, we need time to prep them. We don’t want them to see this as a punishment.”
School system officials also are leaning on teachers to help with the new policy — especially by asking them not to retrieve their cell phones during the middle of class.
“The teachers are going to have to help us,” Perry added. “Teachers are going to have notify the administrators if they see someone not complying.”
The school system also is purchasing nine new buses, with three of them to be used for special needs students. The other six will be 78-passenger buses, and all nine will be air conditioned.
The cost for the buses is nearly $870,000 for the 78-seat buses and $457,500 for the special needs vehicles for a total of more than $1.32 million. The costs will be split between the state Department of Education and the schools’ education-special purpose local option sales tax proceeds. State funding will account for $793,000 of the cost, and more than $534,000 will come from ESPLOST.
More than 50 buses have been purchased in the last five years. The current average age of buses is now eight years old. Previously, the average of the buses was about 18 years old. The new buses will be delivered in January 2025.
The on-time average for buses during May was 94%. The system has 81 drivers, and there are five in training. There were 76 active drivers at this time last year.