The Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 Board of Education discussed the district’s phone policy with its student board member at a meeting Tuesday night, with the student board member sharing her thoughts on cellphone usage in the classroom.
Additionally, the board approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the city of Cortez to provide two school resource officers for the 2026-27 school year, rather than one officer like in previous years.
The board approved the Montezuma-Cortez High School student handbook for the 2026-27 school year following discussions about cellphones.
Student representative Kyah Christenson addressed the board via Zoom, offering a student perspective on phones in class. While acknowledging that phones can be distracting, she argued that the cellphone policy could only be successful if students are engaged in bell-to-bell instruction.
“If students are expected to be off their phones for the entire school day, minus lunch, there must be enough meaningful instruction, discussion, independent work or enrichment to keep them actively engaged throughout every class period,” Christenson said. “A common student experience, including my own, is that direct instruction often ends well before the class period does.”
When instruction time ends before the class period is over or students finish assignments early, she said, students are often left with nothing to fill the remaining time.
“I do entirely agree that phones can be distracting, but I also think that policies should recognize the importance of creating engaging classroom environments that naturally reduce the desire to use them,” Christenson said.
She also suggested individual classroom phone caddies as an alternative to one location for storage for devices.
M-CHS Principal Jennifer Boniface spoke of enforcement challenges, noting that there was inconsistent application by teachers last year. She also agreed with Christenson’s point about filling the entire class period with meaningful instruction.
“We need engaging classrooms, bell-to-bell instruction, rigor ... and that does help get the phones out of kids' hands,” Boniface said. “If they're done, if they're bored, if we have advanced students who are done in five minutes, what do we really expect them to do?”
Boniface and the board highlighted addiction to devices and the reason students are asked to turn their phones into the office each day, rather than putting them in a phone caddy in each classroom. The reason is simple: “out of sight, out of mind.”
“Every teacher is fighting with the students every period of the day. Hallways, bathrooms. We have kids who are recording over the stalls while the children are trying to go to the bathrooms, and we are trying our best to manage that,” Boniface said. “But the best way to manage it: take away the phones.”
Boniface added that lockable cabinets were purchased to address student concerns about the security of their phone after turning it in.
The board also approved the city of Cortez MOU, which will provide two SRO’s from the Cortez Police Department.
Police Chief Vernon Knuckles addressed the board, saying the new MOU was a “great opportunity” for the district’s schools.
“I think it's a great opportunity to expand the law enforcement reach into the schools. I know it's been a struggle for one SRO to manage both schools, and I think this is a great opportunity,” Knuckles said. “And when I say law enforcement … I mean getting law enforcement in with the children, interacting and doing what SROs do.”
A board member inquired about whether or not the SROs will carry their firearms, to which Knuckles said they would be in full uniform and have all their equipment, just like previous years.
Registration for both in-person and online school is now open for the 2026-27 school year.
The next Montezuma-Cortez school board meeting will be held on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m.
bduran@the-journal.com
