The Mancos School District is working to update its current phone policy and is accepting feedback from parents, students and staff until Friday, July 10.
The district’s current policy was adopted in 2022 as a Colorado Association of School Boards core policy adoption and revised in September 2024.
The policy bars students from using or displaying their cellphones during class at any time. While high school students are permitted to use their phones at lunch or during passing periods, middle school and elementary school students are not permitted to use or show their cellphones at any point during the school day.
On June 15, Board of Education President Tim Hunter said the new proposed policy would prohibit high school students from using their cellphones during passing periods, which are still considered instructional time, and students would continue to be allowed to use their phones during lunch.
“Our team will continue to review feedback and look at all of the options for creating an operational system that supports our staff and students through mid-July,” Superintendent Audrey Hazleton told The Journal. “We want to be responsive to staff, student and parent concerns while also ensuring that we have distraction free learning environments and a connected school community all day.”
2025-26 student school board members Greta Thompson and Rhett Brown created a survey for their peers earlier this year that showed the existing cellphone policy is the most popular policy among students.
When asked what students wanted to see changed in the policy, Brown told the Journal that students are fine with the current policy, and are mainly hoping to see one specific change.
“From what I have heard, most students are comfortable with the current policy,” Brown said. “The only significant change I heard students support was allowing headphones to be used in class.”
Thompson brought up student sentiments in a meeting earlier this year, telling the school board that students wished to be permitted to use headphones during times when instruction isn’t taking place or while working on homework.
Brown said the current policy “works well overall,” but noted that the enforcement of the policy is another issue – one that leads to confusion for students.
Some teachers allow phone use during class and others don’t, he said. That causes confusion. Students assume start assuming phones are permitted in all classes and they start to push teachers’ boundaries.
He said the school should focus on ensuring the current policy is enforced consistently, not to further restrict phone use.
Student reactions to the new proposed policy is different from the sentiment toward the current policy.
“Regarding that proposed policy, I have not heard a single positive comment about it from anyone,” Brown said.
He acknowledged the district’s invitation to hear students’ voices on the matter, but said he didn’t think student voices were represented or considered in the development of the new policy.
“Student voices were not represented well in the development of the new policy,” Brown said. “It often feels as if the district conducts surveys to make students believe their opinions will be considered, only to later disregard the majority's feedback. If student input is being requested, it should be genuinely considered and reflected in the final decisions.”
bduran@the-journal.com
