Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti sat down for an interview with The Newtown Bee on Friday, September 6 to discuss the new cell phone policies implemented throughout Newtown Public Schools at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

These policy changes were mentioned in the superintendent’s report at the Tuesday, September 3 Board of Education meeting. While Uberti was not there since she had to attend to a personal matter, BOE Chair Alison Plante read the report in her place.

The report said that students in elementary, intermediate, and middle school who have cell phones are now expected to keep them off and in their lockers during the school day. Newtown Middle School had actually implemented new cell phone use policies last year, and followed up this year by rolling out consequences for students should they fail to follow the guidelines.

As for Newtown High School, Principal Kimberly Longobucco and her team sent out a letter in early August to the students’ parents explaining the changes in their policy. All high school students are now required to place their silenced cell phones in a phone holder when entering class. Cell phones have to remain in the phone holder throughout the class period, including when students leave for the bathroom.

Students will get the cell phones back after class, and be able to use them in study halls, during free periods, in the cafeteria, and before and after school. Any earbuds and headphones will also have to be stored away during class time.

“We believe that these procedures reduce our students’ overall exposure to cell phones during the school day and specifically during class time, while also allowing them to responsibly have access to and use of their cell phones,” Plante read from Uberti’s statement. “We will be monitoring this first iteration of the rules, and we’ll make modifications if necessary going forward.”

These new policies come after Governor Ned Lamont and Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker released a position statement and policy guidance document encouraging statewide recommendations on cell phone use in K-12 public schools, which was approved by the Connecticut State Board of Education in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, August 21.

The document, “Personal Technology Use in Connecticut Schools: Impact of Social Media and the Use of Cell Phones on Student Learning and Mental Health,” provides school districts guidance when creating and implementing policies that monitor access to smartphones, as well as other devices, throughout the school day.

However, there were already plans to change protocols around cell phone use in Newtown Public Schools before these recommendations came out according to Uberti. She says that this has been a decision years in the making, and that there was especially a lot of discussion last year leading up to the new policies.

“We have been following the research on cell phone use, as well as the associated risks to mental health and issues arising from social media, such as distractibility, due to access during the school day,” Uberti said to The Newtown Bee.

Uberti, who came into Newtown as the principal of Reed Intermediate School in 2013 and was appointed as the district’s assistant superintendent of schools six years later in 2019, says that cell phone use has “changed drastically” over the course of her career.

“Even during my time at Reed, when I became principal in 2013, it was unheard of for an intermediate student to have a cell phone,” Uberti said. “And then by the time I left, that had changed. More and more students not only had cell phones, but cell phones had turned into smartphones.”

After leaving RIS in 2019 to move into the assistant superintendent position, Uberti says that she started to spend a lot of time in the high school with her new role. At that point in time, she said the philosophy was to “embrace the power of the cell phone” at the high school level, and that it was not uncommon to see students research or do assignments with their cell phones.

“And then watching that progression was also interesting, because I would say in the last couple years when I would be at the high school, you couldn’t help but wonder, ‘what is that kid doing on his or her cell phone right now? Like, why are they on their cell phone?’” Uberti said.

There were already several different apps where kids could communicate anonymously towards the end of Uberti’s tenure at Reed, which she said was alarming. This was only one of the many challenges of cell phone use at school, alongside the potential spread of misinformation and inappropriate content, as well as their impact on attentiveness and self-esteem.

Uberti says that, as an administrator, cell phone use at schools has been “filled with problems.” When it comes to social media and any posts or texts that happen through the phone, she says that whether it is in or out of school that they have to investigate it if it is reported as some type of mean behavior.

For that reason and more Uberti said that it “has added a whole new dimension to what we do.”

“You know, initially, I don’t think parents understood that a smartphone in the hands of a child is literally a gateway to anything and everything,” Uberti continued. “It’s not just a phone, it’s a computer … so putting it in the hands of children has been tough in schools … And at the same time, it is an incredible device.”

Uberti added that the district will continue to communicate as fast and as quickly as possible, and that they have the ability to send out an email, text, and voice phone call all at once if something happens.

“So if something was happening and a student didn’t have access to a cell phone, we’re still going to be communicating with those parents and hopefully giving them whatever information they need to know,” Uberti said.

She says that she thinks that there are some other districts that lock up phones for the entire day, but has mixed feelings about that because “you are preparing high school students for the ultimate freedom.”

“Right at the end, they’re going to go out and they’re going to be on their own, whether they’re in jobs or they’re at college,” Uberti continued. “And so there is a component that they need to learn how to be responsible users of their cell phones.”

As of last Friday, Uberti says that she has not had any parents or students reach out to her with concerns regarding the new cell phone policies. She also acknowledged that staff is a key part of the whole process, since they have to enforce it in their classrooms.

By the end of the school year, Uberti ultimately hopes that the changes and reduced cell phone use during the day will benefit the students. She adds that they will make adjustments as needed based on feedback and effectiveness of the new policies.

“I think we’re comfortable with where we landed. We’ll have to see how it plays out,” Uberti said. “I think this is a good starting place. And then I think we’ll have to evaluate at the end of the year, or sooner if we need to, whether we hit the sweet spot or have to strengthen it.”

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.