The Bath-area school board is considering changing the school start time for Morse High School to a later start time and banning the use of cellphones for grades 6-12.
“There’s also a lot of research that shows when you take cellphones fully away during the school day students use them less outside of the school day,” said Katie Joseph, assistant superintendent for Regional School Unit 1.
Some of the potential benefits of banning cellphones in the classroom include more in-person communication, less online bullying, and decreases feelings of depression and anxiety, according to Joseph. However, keeping cellphones in classrooms can be used for educational purposes and gives students opportunities to have immediate contact with family members.
Regional School Unit 1 Assistant Superintendent Katie Joseph speaks about the possibility of changing Morse High School start time and banning cellphones in the classroom. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record
Teenagers spend an average of at least four hours of screen time per day, with girls spending more time on phones than boys, according to a Gallup poll cited during the presentation. The main reasons students use their phones during the school day are to text friends and aid with school assignments.
A different poll based on RSU 1 staff observations highlighted concerns that students are too distracted with their phones during classes. Teachers surveyed were also supportive of a cellphone ban.
If a cellphone ban were to pass an RSU 1 board vote, students would have to place their phones into Yondr pouches, a secure sleeve that students slip their phone into and attach to the wall with a magnet until class is over.
Aurora Guzzetti, student representative on the RSU 1 board, said adults exaggerate the amount of time kids spend on their phones. Although limiting phone use may increase face-to-face interaction, it could also lead to separation between friends of kids in college prep courses and Advanced Placement courses, Guzzetti said.
The cellphone ban and later school start times were tied together in Joseph’s presentation as possible changes that could improve students’ mental health.
Out of the 307 students from Morse High School in grades 9-12 surveyed, about 70% felt tired when they wake up, but 73% of students felt school starting later would impact extracurricular actives like sports. In the same survey, 56% of students do not support a later school start time and prefer the current model.
About half of parents believe their children’s mental health is not negatively impacted by the current school schedule, with a majority not supporting a shift in the current school schedule as part of a survey representing 461 families with kids involved with RSU 1 schools pre-K to 12th grade.
RSU 1 would be far from the first to make the switch. High schools in Portland, South Portland, Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Yarmouth and Cumberland, among others, have switched to start times around 8:30 a.m. in recent years.
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