It's only been about a month, but Fern Creek High leaders say their decision to become a phone-free campus is already making a difference for students and teachers.
"They've been more social with each other," Principal Rebecca Nicolas said of the teens enrolled there. "We see them reading books and playing card games and talking to each other in the cafeteria in ways we didn't see before. I think it's like they were being freed from their device."
The motivation for the change, Nicolas said, came from feedback from teachers who noted an increase in distracted students in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fern Creek is the first Jefferson County Public School to implement such a policy, though it follows a national trend that recently gained traction at one local private school .
"This is my 24 th year in education, and over that time I’ve seen cellphones capture our students' attention in a way that makes it very difficult for our teachers to do their jobs," Nicolas said. "It's become a bigger burden for our staff to handle."
Assistant Principal Kenneth Christian noticed the increasing issue, too, so he formed a coalition of building staff to start digging into it. A survey of Fern Creek teachers showed 97% said cellphone use was their biggest problem in the classroom, he said.
The coalition began researching different ways Fern Creek could ban cellphones and how far they wanted to take the ban. Some schools have banned phones entirely, while others have allowed them in hallways and in the lunchroom. The Fern Creek staff arrived at the decision for a full day ban, with a small exception during lunch time if students need to check messages from parents or employers.
To implement the ban, the school relied on an about $35,000 grant from its alumni association to purchase locking pouches that students are asked to put their phones in each morning. There are pouches for each of the school's about 1,600 students, along with extras in case they forget theirs at home.
Students do not have to use the pouches, but their phones can't be seen during the day, Christian said. The pouches, however, are there to help students with self-control issues and ensure teachers don't have to act as cellphone police.
While it's too soon to gauge the overall impact of the change, one statistic seems to show learning is becoming a higher priority among students. About two weeks into the school year, Fern Creek students had already checked out more library books than they did in the entire first semester last year, Christian said.
Additionally, "our teachers are universally delighted," Nicolas said, adding that responses to a survey showed overwhelming satisfaction with the new policy.
Teachers, Nicolas said, noted improved engagement and a greater level of following directions among students.
In the future, Fern Creek plans to send out student surveys to gauge their sense of belonging, as well as evaluate data relating to academic performance and behavior incidents. The hope, Nicolas said, is that they'll see improvements in all those areas.
"It's becoming a non-issue in terms of things we talk about," she said of cellphones. "We're talking about teaching, we're talking about learning, we’re talking about engagement. And that’s really what education is supposed to be about."
Contact Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: How a cellphone ban at one JCPS high school is already showing success
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