Cherry Hill schools adopt new cell phone policy

The Cherry Hill board of education adopted a new cell phone policy at its Aug. 13 meeting that will ban the use of phone and other wireless devices during class time.

The policy will affect that “transmit and receive voice or data via electromagnetic signals without the use of cables,” and can include things like smart watches, earbuds and wireless headphones. The policy will go into effect in September.

Board President Miriam Stern explained that the policy is based on surveys of residents, staff, students and families and has, so far, seen a positive response from the community. Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton noted that the surveys showed about 85% of respondents felt something needed to be done about cellphone usage in school, without resorting to a total ban.

“There are a lot of differing views on all sides of the topic,” noted Stern, “but certainly I think a lot of us up here and a lot of our administration and our teachers, I think, are very, very happy that we’re starting at least at this point. We appreciate the community’s support.

“This is the first step,” Morton said. “We’ll see how this goes, and if there’s a need to ramp up and become more stringent and more restrictive, we can always do so moving forward.”

The new policy says “students may use wireless communication devices during lunch, recess, between classes, while on school buses or during co-curricular activities, unless the school’s principal elects to prohibit such use during lunch and provided that any co-curricular use is approved by the co-curricular supervisor and does not create a safety hazard during … (that) activity.”

Exceptions will be made for students who need to use cell phones as part of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP), as well as those who use their devices to monitor or address health conditions. But the health exception requires permission from the school nurse and must be written officially.

The full policy as well as an announcement explaining it can be found on the district website’s front page.

“I know it is a big change, especially for some of our high-school students who have gotten used to having their phones all day long,” observed board member Gina Winters, who sits on the policy and legislation committee. “It’s going to be different, and different is always hard and challenging.”

The board also approved a newly revised calendar for the 2024-’25 school year that changes the date of 2025’s graduation from Thursday, June 19, to the following day. The change avoids the holiday pay rate of time and a half for staff at Liacouras Center, which will host the Pennsylvania celebration of Juneteenth on Thursday.

In other news:

• The board received updates on the preschool expansion program as well as a data presentation from the recent New Jersey standardized testing results. Both full presentations are on the Cherry Hill schools’ YouTube page.
• The district approved the deferred retirement of Barbara Wilson, the district’s longtime public information officer, who manages the district’s communications and social media. Wilson’s role will end on Oct. 1.
• The district welcomed four new staff members: Zenetta Bronson, a preschool instructional coach; Amanda Gerald, a community and parent involvement specialist; Diana Polito, a preschool intervention and referral specialist; and Catherine Briggs, a preschool social worker.

The next board of education meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at 6:30 p.m.