Webutuck school board considers district-wide cellphone policy

AMENIA — The Webutuck Board of Education discussed a potential new district cellphone policy at its meeting on Monday, March 3.

The potential policy, which is still in its early planning phases, would require students to place cellphones in a receptacle when they enter a classroom at the beginning of a period.

Cellphones would remain in that box until the end of the period unless teachers decide to allow the class to use the cellphones for instructional purposes.

Students would still be allowed to have and use their cellphones during passing periods and during lunch, but not during any class periods — including study halls.

The policy discussion at Webutuck coincides with discussions in Albany over statewide school cellphone regulations.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced in January a plan to curb school cellphone use by mandating phone storage boxes in classrooms and about $13 million in funding for the receptacles in the 2026 budget.

The Webutuck policy is still being discussed.

“Easy to speak about it, but I am telling you as sure as my name is Ray that this is going to be a nightmare,” Webutuck Superintendent Ray Castellani said. “But this is not something that’s unique to New York State or to Webutuck.”

Castellani emphasized the cellphone policy is only intended to improve educational quality at the Webutuck school district. He said cellphones get in the way of learning and access to social media causes friction between students.

“When your kids are at school they are safe,” Castellani said. “Cellphones are not meant for instruction unless a teacher needs it for instruction. It’s just that simple.”

Also on the agenda was a recap of the mid-year testing data for the elementary, intermediate and high schools.

Generally, students showed measured improvements from the beginning of the year across grade levels in reading and math assessments in the elementary and middle schools.

The high school data report by principals Robert Knuschke and Matthew Pascale included data on in-school suspension and office referrals.

The principals said they had implemented some new policies and strategies to reduce in-school suspensions and office referrals, and the data showed huge gains in both arenas in the high school and the intermediate school.

Since September, compared to the same period last school year, suspensions in the intermediate school were down more than 80% and in the high school around 50%.