Prairie High School is currently working a new phone policy to be implemented next year and it is expected to change learning engagement in classrooms for the upcoming school year. Two of the key factors that is going into the making the new policy is the feedback from parents, students and staff surveys.

The results of the surveys were were shared with the students, staff, and parent PBIS members as they play the key role in the designing of the new cell phone policy. The results from the parents and the students have gotten in, we still await results from the staff members survey. These surveys were sent out as a way to attempt to meet everyone’s needs when it comes to a new policy like this.

The Tier One committee and administration looked at all the survey data collected to get an idea of what parents would support as well as what students thought. “We took all that information and tried to aggregate it into generally what parents are looking for,” says Mrs.Mofford, who’s part of the tier one committee. All sides and opinions involved in this situation are being heard, and the tier one committee and admin responsible for creating this are listening to everyone’s voices. “Parents want students to learn and be productive, students want to have freedom and be able to manage themselves,” states Mofford.

These surveys sent out play a significant role in the crafting of this new policy, and results overall varied. So with results from 2 out of the 3 sent out, we can expect to move forward in the creation of the new cell phone policy. The next steps in this would be awaiting the results of the staff survey that was sent out and putting everything together to discuss what potential options could be regarding the policy. Then, ultimately the tier one committee will decide on the best of the options.

The hope for the outcome of this whole process was described as “a way where everyone feels their voices are heard and will be beneficial for everyone,” says Mofford. The policy is still in the making but Prairie is one step closer to creating the policy for next year. Students can expect to learn how to use their cell phones as a tool in a classroom environment.