The Conway School Board announced that the district’s four middle schools will begin banning in-school use of cell phones during its Sept. 10 meeting.
School Board President David Naylor Jr. said, “I am very, very much in support of this program. I have actually talked for years about getting rid of these cell phones in class. We’re there to get an education.”
The school district will implement the Yondr pouch technology to limit cell phone usage.
Naylor said, “What happens with that is, when they get to school, they’ll each have their own pouch, and they’ll place their cell phone in that pouch, and then close the pouch.
“The student will keep that pouch with them all throughout the day. So the phone will be with them, it just will be off. Once the school day is over, they will have several magnets by each exit, and they will actually walk by that and that will deactivate the pouch. Open the pouch, they can get their phone out,” he said.
The pouches cannot be opened without the magnet.
Conway High School senior Autumn Beck said, “I really don’t agree with it because I think it’s stupid. I feel like people can break it really easy and open it. Plus, I feel like if something were to happen at school, we wouldn’t be able to have access to our phones.”
If a student destroys their pouch, they will be required to buy a new one for $30.
Naylor said that the project should start in the next 30 to 60 days, whereas Vice President of the school board Trip Leach said that they should begin distributing pouches after Thanksgiving break.
The program will be implemented in all four middle schools within the Conway school district, including Carl Stuart Middle School, Bob and Betty Courtway Middle School, Raymond and Phyllis Simon Middle School and Ruth Doyle Middle School.
“We’ll look at the data from this pilot program, and if the data is as good as I think it will be, then yes, I’m sure it’ll be heavy consideration for the junior high and high school,” Naylor said.
Leach said that the middle schools were chosen to test the program because it would be easier to gather data compared to the high school.
“We’ve got four middle schools, so you have four actual campuses internally we can compare data to,” he said. “Logistically, it’s probably not going to be as disruptive as per se, high school, where probably every child has a cell phone versus some have them.”
Beck said high school students currently put their phones in their backpacks and then put their backpacks in front of the classroom.
The school board began communication with Yondr in early 2024.
Naylor said, “I called Yondr last, probably February, talked to them about their technology. We were looking at going to this program this year. The governor [Sarah Huckabee Sanders] actually is pushing this and pushing the funding. So I appreciate the governor and Secretary [Jacob] Oliva for helping out with the funding so we can start this program.”
The school district decided to launch the program for a variety of reasons such as state-wide teacher shortages and student safety.
“The thing that caught my attention is that teacher retention went way up when you took the cell phones out of classrooms, and obviously, with a teacher shortage, that’s a big deal,” Naylor said.
Leach said he supports the project due to concerns about student safety.
“I’ve got some middle schoolers too [Leach’s children] that would talk about stories about how kids would show them school fights on their cell phone that were recorded and posted on these obscure websites,” he said.
Aside from school fights, Leach also hopes to see the Yondr pouches increase test scores, improve class engagement and promote positive student interaction.
Other Arkansas school districts have already implemented the program, including Bentonville, which started using the Yondr pouches with its 5th-8th graders in September.
“I believe it will change the academic landscape and discipline issues in our school,” Conway School Board Secretary Linda Hargis said.