Moreno Valley Unified School District is hoping to have a new cellphone policy in place ahead of the 2025-26 school year.
“I think we’ll actually have a recommendation next semester for the board to consider,” Superintendent Alejandro Ruvalcaba said at the Aug. 27 meeting. “Because we also need to make sure that we start communicating to the community, educating our kiddos and our parents in terms of expectations, so that when they go out for the summer they know what to expect when they come back.”
But before that can happen, the district must first identify key stakeholders, including district staff, students, parents, union representatives and board members; gather information on current device usage, issues and needs; and form a task force that will begin crafting the new policy.
“We will be having student agencies, student voice, also parent input, teacher input, classified, staff input, administrative input,” Esperanza Arce, chief academic officer, said. “Everybody will be providing input.”
After that, the task force will conduct research on policies from similar districts, draft initial standards and get feedback from internal stakeholders to ensure the policy is meeting their needs before taking the amended policy out to a wider audience of union representatives, students, parents and community members for feedback.
Arce said data from Badger Springs Middle School’s pilot program that requires students to lock away their cellphones will be included in the information provided to the task force.
“Their suspension rate has decreased significantly,” she said. “They use those pouches where the kids have to put their phones [and] lock them up, so we’re excited to have some data that’s going to be able to provide some feedback as we meet with the task force.”
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
The draft policy will then be presented to the board and the community for final review and revisions before adoption and implementation.
“It’s kind of like an accordion,” Ruvalcaba said. “Meet with folks, get their input, look at best practices, develop a plan, take it back out for review and again, refine it and then present the framework.”
Once the policy is implemented, the district will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed to ensure it’s working for district staff, students and parents.
“What’s going to be critical with that policy is not only the implementation, but the accountability piece,” Trustee Ruth Self-Williams said. “What is that going to look like when you have a student who violates the policy? That’s where it’s going to get very contentious.”
A full recording of the meeting can be found here on the district’s YouTube channel.
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!