Superintendent's Updates

Phone-Free School Community Conversation

May 5 2025

Good afternoon,

This is a reminder that the Board of Education will host a Community Conversation tomorrow evening, from 7:30–9:00 PM, in the CMS Auditorium.

The focus of the evening is to gather community input on my June 2024 recommendation to restrict student access to smartphones and wearable technology during the school day across all grade levels. The goal is to implement this in a way that does not rely on faculty and staff for the primary enforcement of these restrictions.

The discussion will be moderated by respected Westport educator and former RTM Moderator, Velma Heller, who will facilitate a series of prompts to guide participant feedback.

Additional Updates:

Wilton High School implemented a phone free initiative last November. Since then, we’ve closely monitored their experience and conducted a site visit in February, which offered valuable insights. This visit was covered by Staples Newspaper, Inklings, in their March edition. See pages 14-16.
A report was provided to the Wilton BOE last week by their building administration and three representative students.
- Please see the Wilton BOE presentation beginning at the 1:04 mark (student commentary at 1:21).
Although a final report will be compiled by Hanover Research and available later this week, preliminary results from our district survey show:
- 70% of faculty strongly support or somewhat support a phone-free school environment.
- 59% of parents strongly support or somewhat support the initiative.
- Only 7% of students support or somewhat support it.
On May 15, I will formally present a report to the Board of Education and request action on a motion to:
- “Direct the Administration to establish a rule, effective July 1, 2025, prohibiting student use of personal cellular telephones, smartphones, and similar electronic devices during the school day in all district schools.”
This report will include research findings, survey data, student engagement results, faculty focus group insights, and feedback from this Community Conversation.
The Board may vote on May 15 or June 5, based on their discretion. If approved, the administration will develop an operational plan for implementation and determine whether additional funding is needed. A targeted volunteer group of faculty, students, administrators, and parents will be invited to review the plan before it goes into effect.
Ideally, the plan would go into effect the first day of the 25-26 school year, but I am not opposed to delaying a month or two if that increases the likelihood of success.