|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
As concerns continue to rise about the harm children experience from excessive screen time, the Mountain View Whisman School District recently committed to taking another look at its technology practices. However, the decision wasn’t without controversy.
At a May 28 meeting, the school board voted 3-2 – with Devon Conley, Charles DiFazio and Lisa Henry in favor – to approve a resolution stating that the district will balance technology’s value as a teaching tool with the harm that too much screen time can cause.
Board members Ana Reed and Bill Lambert cast the dissenting votes, questioning whether the district had completed enough research and raising concerns that the document was too vague to have a real impact.
“I would feel more comfortable if the resolution had the details on it from the research that’s being done,” Reed said. “To me, this seems incomplete, and it seems like something we would have to revisit and revise, and then reapprove.”
Mountain View Whisman’s move came shortly after the Los Angeles Unified School District greenlit a resolution to limit screen time in classrooms. Conley highlighted that while Mountain View Whisman had already been working on its own technology-use resolution, it was helpful to have Los Angeles come out with one.
“It was frankly incredibly convenient to have that drop just as we were in the drafting process,” Conley said. “There were some things that we could borrow from, but then adapt and make appropriate for our school district.”
A major difference between the two districts’ resolutions is that Los Angeles Unified included a clause outlining plans to develop a screen time policy, while Mountain View Whisman more broadly suggested that it would consider the use of technology at its schools as it works on its strategic plan.
The simplicity of Mountain View Whisman’s resolution sparked debate among trustees. Reed suggested that the district did not yet have enough data and information to be passing such a document. She said she was surprised to even see the topic on the agenda, given the district was still collecting survey responses from parents, students and staff regarding their perspectives on technology usage in the classroom.
Lambert similarly said that the district should spend time looking over its technology-use data and then use that information to develop concrete plans. In its current form, Lambert described the resolution as a “high-level overview.”
“It’s pretty much meaningless,” he said.
Conley, on the other hand, said that the resolution would serve as a “communication piece” summarizing the actions the district has already taken, as well as the actions it intends to take moving forward.
“We’ve been seeing resolutions like this adopted elsewhere in the state, and it’s creating public interest in a topic that parents already had concern about,” Conley said. “If we don’t communicate what we’re doing more clearly as a board and what our goals are, I think that leaves parents feeling like we aren’t doing anything.”
Concerns about kids’ technology use bubble up
In recent years, parents have been raising alarms about the risks of excessive screen time for kids and evidence has been emerging on how it can negatively impact physical and cognitive development.
Back in January, the school board voted to reduce the number of individual laptops given out to younger students. Previously, all first- through third-graders were assigned their own computers, but now, a limited number of individual devices will be available for students whose parents request one and classrooms will utilize shared computer carts. This decision came as part of the district’s multi-million dollar budget cuts ahead of the 2026-27 school year.
Additionally, the board is soon expected to approve a policy limiting students’ use of smartphones during school hours, according to the May resolution.
In March, Mountain View Whisman community members circulated a petition that sought to reduce school-based screen time for students. The petition said that parents were concerned that the district’s use of technology was negatively affecting students’ mental health and academic success. A petition organizer did not respond to a request for comment on the number of signatures collected.
During the May 28 discussion, board members highlighted their desire to have a study session early next year on classroom technology use, at which they could dive deeper into the recent survey data.
“Once we get through a study session, once we get data back, once the strategic planning process has gone through, what we would eventually do is adopt a policy, probably,” Conley said.
