New cell phone rules top changes at Tampa Bay schools this fall

On Monday morning, more than 430,000 students in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties are expected back in school.

Some will be in brand-new schools — or, in the case of Hillsborough, different schools because of boundary changes.

They will see other changes, too — most notably, beefed-up policies concerning cell phones.

Each district added new restrictions, with the overarching aim to eliminate the distraction of phones and place added focus on classwork and in-person relationships. Their new policies are not identical, though, so rules will vary from school to school depending on the age group, the district and the principal’s preference.

Generally speaking, elementary school children will have to keep their phones stashed away during the school day, unless directed by teachers to take them out for instructional reasons. In the older grades, students will face similar limitations in their classrooms, though depending on the district, they might have permission to use the phones during lunch or between classes.

Districts have crafted exceptions for students with special health or medical needs.

Students are reminded that, as in the past, they are forbidden from taking unauthorized or improper photos and videos that would violate others’ privacy, with penalties if they do.

Administrators do not yet know how easy it will be to appease parents who like to be in frequent contact with their children, or students who have become accustomed to having phones within easy reach.

“It is an addiction,” Hillsborough School Board member Lynn Gray said when her board debated two policy options on July 23. “These kids and adults are addicted — I am sorry, some of us are — to the cell phone. And unfortunately for our children, it damages their emotional and social growth.”

Here are some other new developments and ongoing issues for the 2024-25 school year.

Hillsborough: New programs and a tax showdown

Kenneth E. Adum PreK-8 Magnet School will greet its inaugural classes at a brand-new campus in South Tampa.

“Everything about this school is incredible — from the media center, to our musical program, to our soccer field out back with artificial turf,” said Principal Scott Weaver, who has enrolled 1,050 students with a waiting list of 600 more.

Stacked on the media center tables this week were fact sheets promoting the district’s Every Day Matters attendance campaign. Like most districts, Hillsborough is working to address a decline in attendance that followed the COVID shut-down.

“We expect all of our students to be in their seats on day one,” Weaver said.

Weaver and district leaders were speaking at Wednesday’s yearly back-to-school news conference, held at the precise time when County Commissioners were responding to a judge’s order to allow the district to hold a property tax referendum in November.

The commissioners voted to fight the referendum through an appeal. At stake is $177 million a year that the district says it needs to pay competitive salaries and fill teacher vacancies.

Hillsborough is also bracing for a continued loss of business to charter schools, which are funded by the state but operate independently. If the charter schools’ projections are correct, they will serve 41,000 students, which is more than 15% of the public school population. It is also not known how families will react to boundary changes that were approved in 2023 to ease crowding at some schools and fill seats in others. Under-enrollment led to the closing of five schools in June.

District high schools have added programs to remain relevant and competitive. These include a business academy at Freedom High School, a cybersecurity program at Wharton High and gaming simulation at East Bay High. Each of the 28 high schools will have Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) programs, which are similar to Advance Placement and International Baccalaureate.

District officials also anticipate a continued influx of families, many from out of the country, to the Town ‘N Country area. To serve them, they are preparing to open a service center near Alexander Elementary School later this year with a bilingual staff who can help with registration and other student needs.

“We want to make sure that parents have the resources and also the ability to be able to advocate for their students and navigate the system to ensure that their students are successful,” said school board member Nadia Combs, who pushed for the center’s creation.

Pinellas: A rare new school campus

For the first time in six years, Pinellas is opening a new school.

Mangrove Bay Middle is a partnership school sharing a complex on 62nd Avenue NE with the Speer YMCA. The school — on the site of the former Riviera Middle — offers a magnet program in health and wellness.

Middle schools are a special focus for the district, which is working to improve attendance in sixth through eighth grades. The district is expanding its “middle school experience” initiative that offers more extracurriculars and electives to eight additional schools as it also takes steps to get more sixth graders into U.S. history in preparation for civics the following year.

In high schools the district will provide new AICE classes including drama, business and accounting.

High school students also will see a new exam exemption policy that gives them more flexibility in which courses they must sit for finals. The new rule allows students to exempt semester exams for as many as three courses in which they are averaging a C grade or better over both quarters, and have not missed more than five days in those classes.

Last year, about a third of Pinellas students districtwide missed 18 or more days of school, and the district is working to reverse that trend. Kindergarten and first grade had some of the biggest absence rates, and schools are reaching out to parents with a campaign explaining the importance of being in school. The plan also calls for ensuring every child has a positive connection with at least one adult in school.

Pasco: More pre-K, honors courses

The new Kirkland Ranch K-8 School in Wesley Chapel will open with prekindergarten through seventh grade, adding eighth grade the following year. A magnet school, it will blend world languages and entrepreneurship into lessons beginning in kindergarten.

The district is adding prekindergarten programs to four more schools in the fall, as part of its effort to improve early literacy initiatives. With this addition, it will have pre-K in 82% of its elementary schools, up from fewer than half three years ago.

Building upon efforts to provide greater access to advanced courses, the district is expanding its initiative of offering only honors-level or higher materials at certain schools. The program, which began at Cypress Creek High, is growing at Hudson High and moving into Anclote High.

Hudson High also will see its community health and resource center fully operational. A partnership with Metropolitan Ministries, St. Leo University and Premier Community HealthCare, the center includes medical services, a clothing closet and food pantry and tutoring, among other opportunities.

The district also is looking to boost its career and technical opportunities, particularly in the lower grades. It’s refashioning its STEM bus into a hands-on innovation station that will travel between elementary schools to give fifth graders more activities as they prepare for middle school.

On the safety front, the district has added more door locks throughout campuses as it enacts a new state law restricting access points. From building to building, doors will be locked during class periods, with each school setting up its own protocols for when students need to move between classes. Some might have to rely on escorts, while others might use swipe cards to get in and out, assistant superintendent Betsy Kuhn said.

”It really depends on the school. But you will see the doors being locked on all our campuses,” Kuhn said. “It will be a big change.”