Western Colorado Community Foundation raising money to support D51’s new policy

Kudos to Superintendent Dr. Brian Hill and Board of Education President Andrea Haitz for their outstanding leadership in taking this important step to encourage greater student attention and focused learning in classrooms across our school district.

An increasing number of studies are linking excessive screen time and social media use to detrimental effects in our society, including declining academic performance in our schools and increasing rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide among young people. Sociologists like Jonathan Haidt in his recent book, “The Anxious Generation,” prescribe limits to smartphone access in schools, showing correlation between “phones away” with increased engagement, well-being and learning outcomes for students. States like Florida and Indiana have enacted legislation to regulate technology use in schools to improve the learning environment during the school day.

The Western Colorado Community Foundation is working with its donors and the broader community to support Dr. Hill, his administration, principals and teachers in advancing this agenda by launching a blitz campaign this summer called Hold the Phone! The fundraising goal is $100,000 and will equip every middle and high school classroom in the district with cell phone holders like storage lockers and individual Yondr pouches. Teachers welcome these cell phone storage options because it frees them to focus on their teaching without being burdened by monitoring student cell phone use or confiscating phones. By providing designated places for students to keep their phones, these holders help reinforce the policy and ensure that everyone stays engaged without feeling they are missing out on what might be circulating on social media.

Classrooms and school districts that have implemented similar policies report that, after a few weeks of transition, students are more attentive and engaged in classroom learning. They are also smiling and laughing more IN PERSON with their classmates. Longer term, many districts report positive turnarounds in academic performance and less cyber-bulling and anxiety in the student population.

The Hold the Phone! campaign this summer is just part of our Community Foundation’s broader commitment to provide more information and education to our community, in a grand effort to make face-to-face, phone-free connections more popular and prevalent. In this process, we hope to fundamentally enhance the quality of relationships and genuine connections between people that are essential to a thriving community. Promoting community is a core role we play as a Community Foundation here in western Colorado.

For more information about this initiative, visit wc-cf.org. And please consider helping us reach our Hold the Phone fundraising goal by making a donation today at bit.ly/WCCFHoldThePhone.

Anne Wenzel, President and CEO, Western Colorado Community Foundation