Dunkirk’s new secondary schools principal, Adam Hernandez, announced a number of changes for the upcoming school year at this week’s Board of Education meeting.

“I think in education specifically, it’s important to have a growth mindset and keep trying to move forward, and make changes that will hopefully benefit the students,” he said.

Dunkirk High School, which educates grades seven through 12, now has a policy strictly banning cell phones in classrooms. District officials determined, after surveying parents, that cell phones are too disruptive to learning.

“This isn’t just a Dunkirk challenge, it’s a challenge at a lot of different school districts,” Hernandez said. “Again, we’re talking about good learning environments and being able to learn — cell phones is one of those topics.”

While cell phone use was only fifth on the list of reasons of referrals for possible punishment at DHS in 2022-23, “the insubordination and the disrespect, and I’ve looked at a lot of the discipline data, those are tied to cell phones. It’s a teacher asking someone to put a cell phone away and those students not agreeing with that… If you look at the (parent) survey results, 55% of respondents said that they worried about their own child’s cell phone use at school, and then even higher, 64%, said they were concerned about overall cell phone use in school.”

Seventh- and eighth-graders will have to put away their cell phones for the entire school day except for lunch, a change from the previous policy where they could use them in the halls. Students’ phones will be placed in classroom caddies and be available in case of emergency.

The ninth- through-12th graders can use phones in the halls but they can’t make noise. They were already not supposed to use phones in classes, but the policy was not strictly enforced. It will be this year, Hernandez promised.

There are more changes coming this year at Dunkirk High:

¯ In a change back to pre-COVID rules, backpacks won’t be allowed in classrooms. Students successfully petitioned the school board last school year to keep carrying bookbags, so they wouldn’t be late to class because they had to go back to their lockers. However, district officials have decided that the safety concerns backpacks present, override worries about being on time.

¯ To ease the time crunch between classes, bell periods are extended by one minute each. They are now four minutes long.

¯ Computers will have to be left in most classrooms, though some honors and special education students can still carry them. Kids were forgetting to charge the computers when they took them, disrupting lessons when they returned to class.

The first full day of school is set for Thursday, Sept. 7.