I hope you've had a wonderful holiday season with your families, friends, and loved ones. The staff at Nuview Bridge and I are so excited to welcome all of our students back to school for the spring semester. We have a lot of great work to do in the coming months and it is our privilege to be working with our amazing students and community. Toward that end, and to provide a safe, supportive, and productive educational environment, I want to address the issue of cell phones on campus.

 

Student use of cell phones and other devices in class has represented a significant distraction to instruction and learning and has often led to instances of electronic bullying, conflicts, and other negative behaviors in addition to harming student learning. Beginning today, many of our teachers will be implementing no cell phone policies during instructional time in their classrooms. In these classrooms, cell phones and other devices, aside from school-issued Chromebooks, will not be permitted at any time. This includes phone calls, texting, social media/internet use, music, and any other use of students' electronic devices. Teachers will be communicating these policies to all students. However, in cases where students choose not to follow these expectations, student phones will be confiscated and held in the front office until the end of the school day. On the first occurrence of a confiscated phone, students will be able to pick up their phone from the front office at the end of the day. Repeated confiscation of cell phones, however, will require parent pick up of students' phones. This transition toward a learning environment free of student cell phone use is also being considered as a school-wide policy for the 2024-25 school year.

 

In the case of a true family emergency in which a student or parent needs to contact each other, I encourage both to contact the NBECHS front office and our staff will make sure that the student has access to a school phone. We ask for all of our parents' support as we work with our students to ensure the most focused learning environment possible. We truly appreciate all of your help as we support the learning of all students.