The Middletown community joins Goshen’s Cell Phone Summit meeting

On April 2, Goshen Central School District’s committee to draft a cell phone-free policy in our schools met with the Enlarged City School District of Middletown. Middletown has years of experience with creating a cell phone-free environment for students. 

To form our committee, Goshen reached out to our parent/guardian community on Parent Square with a survey related to the expected New York State legislation restricting cell phone use in schools. The district reached our entire community with a QR code on the back of our fall newsletter linking to the same survey. Those who expressed interest in joining a committee in the survey have been invited to attend the Cell Phone Summits: meetings with the goal of drafting a policy that can be presented to the Board of Education for students regarding cell phone usage. 

Students, parents/guardians, teachers and administrators met during the first two Cell Phone Summits in March to provide honest feedback amongst each other and review cell phone-free policies in other school districts. 

During the third Cell Phone Summit meeting on April 2, our community was joined remotely by the following representatives from Middletown:

  • Amy Creeden – Superintendent of Schools
  • Ed Estrada – Board of Education President
  • William Donahue – High School Executive Principal
  • Kate Sheedy – High School Associate Principal
  • Matthew Branford – High School Teacher
  • Norma Avila – Scholar Member on the Board of Education
Goshen community members sit in the Board of Education meeting room and look at the virtual meeting taking place with Middletown community members.

The discussion covered a lot of ground; from how to open and close a Yondr pouch to exactly how many minutes Middletown adjusted the arrival schedule to allow for to students store their cell phones. Middletown produced a video that shows the implementation of their cell phone policy through the eyes of a student during arrival to school.  

Thank you to our Middletown guests for attending our meeting and providing us with such important feedback. Thank you to our Goshen community for continuing to attend our Cell Phone Summits as we look to create a cell phone-free policy as a community.

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