Cape school board: Early reports 'overwhelmingly positive' following implementation of cell phone pouches

Cape Girardeau Public School District Board of Education members provided a brief update on the district’s new cellphone pouch program at Cape Central High School during the group’s Monday, Jan. 22, meeting.

The pouches — known as Yondr Pouches — are lockable phone pouches that are, according to the provider’s website, intended to create phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations and individuals. Yondr’s website indicates the company has helped implement the devices in thousands of schools across 16 countries.

According to Brice Beck, deputy superintendent of Secondary Education, most of the initial reports have been “overwhelmingly positive” regarding the pouches.

“They questioned students the first week back using the system, and they questioned teachers,” Beck said. “It’s a feeling of (students) being a lot more engaged in the teaching and learning environment. Conversations have picked up around the building where it’s a true social interaction with peers and staff members. They’ve talked about how it almost seemed like an overnight culture shift, so to speak, just because you can see people’s eyes, you can see faces in the hallway and there’s that person-to-person engagement occurring.”

In addition to improving classroom engagement and social interaction, the pouches have allegedly helped speed up the school’s end-of-day process and reduce the number of disciplinary referrals students receive.

“All car riders that came in the main entrance of the high school were out of the building in approximately three minutes and 30 seconds the first day going out the door,” Beck said. “We shoot to have all of the buses loaded up and ready to roll out of the north parking lot in about six to eight minutes, typically. On the first day, with kids just learning how to undo their pouches, we had buses rolling out in the parking lot at six minutes and 30 seconds.”

Cape Central began checking out its Yondr Pouches on Jan. 9, when students returned from Christmas break.

“You actually get a pouch checked out to you, and it becomes district property that’s simply given to you for the course of the school year, the same way we would check out a Chromebook,” Beck said. “Then, you label that with your name. Our kids have already started the process of decorating their pouches and making them unique to themselves. What happens is the pouch stays in your possession 24/7, and the expectation is that when you walk into the high school every day for school, you’re going to pouch up and lock your pouch. Then, when you exit the building, the Yondr team that came in to do the rollout implementation, they helped us strategically place unlocking stations all around the campus for the main dismissal points.”

While officials have seen positive results so far, many have expressed concern for student safety in the event of an emergency at the school. According to Beck, student safety is the district’s top priority and the high school’s procedures in the event of an emergency remain in place.

“(Student safety) was the No. 1 question that got brought up very early on when we communicated that we were looking at either adopting Yondr. We have many people, including myself, that are parents of our own children that we’re sending to the district. We’re thinking about things and (possible emergencies) cross our mind,” Beck said. “But what we concluded — as an administrative team at the high school and with collaboration from our leadership team here — is it doesn’t change our procedures in a safety event, because our first priority is going to be getting our students accounted for. We have an entire district safety plan that we follow depending on the type of incidents that occur.”

In the event of a major emergency, such as an intruder or active shooter where a student absolutely needs to be able to use their phone, the pouches can be cut open to remove the device and make a call.

“Once kids are accounted for, we’ve got them out of the situation and we’ve rallied to safety, we have means to get them to communicate with their parents,” Beck said. “The pouches are not indestructible, and I talked about that in one of our first meetings. We can just simply cut them up and take the phone out. We talked about fees with the association of damaged pouches, but in an emergency situation, God forbid that ever occurs, that’s not something we’re worried about. We’ll just get the phones out, and then we’ll figure out the rest later.”

While it’s too early to truly know whether the Yondr Pouches are going to be a long-term solution, Beck said he hopes the district can have a good idea of how utilizing them will progress closer to the end of the school year, adding it could take years before a full evaluation can take place.

“I think the true story here is giving it some time to be implemented, but then really going and getting the educators’ perspective of people who have been there while it’s being implemented,” Beck said. “Not just the teachers’ perspective, but the students’ perspective and the leadership team, because I get snapshots of how things are going early on when we’re there on-site, but our teachers that teach at CHS and the administrative team and the students, that is the procedure for them daily. I feel like getting their feedback a couple of months into this semester will provide excellent information.”