PPS takes step toward phone-free schools at cost of almost $250K

PEORIA (25News Now) - Peoria Public Schools Board of Education is willing to spend almost a quarter-million dollars for technology that will shut off students’ cellphones when they’re at school.

The board on Monday night voted unanimously to buy up to 9,200 Yondr pouches at a cost of almost $246,000 for the district’s middle school and high school students.

According to Govspend in the past eight years schools 41 states have spent $2.5 million buying pouches from Yondr. Dallas social studies teacher Kameron Hill says his school has used them for the past year.

“I saw in my classes over the course of the year that students couldn’t just reach into their backpack and grab a phone to text their peer or something,” says Hill.

According to the Yondr website, the pouch is hand-sewn and once the phone is placed inside the pouch will lock. It’s essentially a lock box for cell phones.

“The phones have just taken over,” said Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat. So, for the upcoming school year, the district is willing to give it a try.

“We have nothing to lose,” she said.

“I went to school one time, and I saw a kid with three phones. I’m not kidding,” Desmoulin-Kherat told the board.

Students will be required to put their phones in pouches, which are automatically locked until the end of the school day

Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat says they will be looking at academic results throughout having these pouches.

“We will look at the behavioral mental health and were providing mental health support. I don’t know if you heard of Cartwheel, where they provide online therapy. We will look at pulling data there a quite a bit of Martix we can use,” says Kherat.

Desmoulin-Kherat believes a majority of parents and teachers support the idea, but she acknowledges a few parents are worried about safety if they can’t reach their kids. Since students have access to computers, the superintendent said parents and their children might have to rely more on email.

If students lose the pouches, they will be responsible for replacing them. Each one costs $30, according to Desmoulin-Kherat.

“Our teens phone if they take them to school and if they lose them or something happens to them we have to replace them not the school, says Peoria School District parent Arneshia Ryas. The superintendent believes kids will do better in their studies when they’re not focused on their phones.

Kherat says the principals in the school district will meet on July 17th to finalize details about the pouches.

Yondr’s website said a million students use the technology every day. The company was founded in 2014 and has offices in California, Minnesota, New York and Sydney, Australia.

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