The school board advanced policies on when screens can be used in classrooms. The meeting was shut down as parents expressed concern.
On Monday, a Lower Merion school board committee advanced a new policy dictating when screens should be used in classrooms. Angry parents in attendance at the meeting want more limits on technology use in the classroom, and the meeting was shut down over the disruptions.
The policy committee came up with the rules after facing backlash from parents over their children’s excessive screen time.
The committee meeting recessed and was later ended due to shouts from angry parents in the crowd.
“When you are disrupting a public meeting, you are actually breaking the law,” said school board president Kerry Sautner in response to parent David Smyth calling on the committee to allow more attendees to speak. The committee had ended its public comment period after 45 minutes.
Sautner told Smyth he could leave, or stay and listen. When Smyth said that he wanted additional time for public comment, the committee switched its meeting to Zoom to vote to advance the policy.
The policy will now face a vote before the full school board on August 17.
Under the policy, new guidelines would be set for how technology is used across the school district. The policy reduces screen time for the youngest students and enforces that individual technology devices will not be issued to kindergarten or first or second grade students. Previously, students in these grades received iPads or Chromebooks.
“Many of you came and said, ‘I don’t think my kindergartener needs a one-to-one device.’ I don’t disagree with you,” said Superintendent Frank Ranelli at the meeting.
The policy states that any technology use for K-2 students “shall be minimal, highly structured, and limited to specific educational purposes.”
Students in third and fourth grades would not have personal devices under the policy, but would have “an assigned log-in” that they can use to access classroom computers.
Students in grades five and six would be assigned devices that would only be brought home with a parent’s permission, Ranelli said. For students in seventh and eighth grades, assigned personal devices would be permitted to be brought home.
Ranelli said that families “cannot decline technology” under the proposed policy, which angered many parents.
In June, the board had voted to remove a policy that required the district to allow families to opt out of technology use for their students.
More than 800 parents signed a petition in support of continuing the right to opt out, but Ranelli said this is not possible. Parents are continuing to push back. “In our mind, the big sin is really one-to-one devices,” Smyth said in a recent interview.
On August 17, the proposed policy will see a vote before the full school board.
