Share what brought you here

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected. Thank you for the time you give this community.

I want to share some good news from our own students. A change your family has made at home. For example: this year our phones charge in the kitchen overnight, and my kids are sleeping better for it.

We're not alone. Every two years, nearly every Concord-Carlisle student in grades 6, 8, and 9 through 12 answers the Emerson Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Between 2024 and 2026, the share of eighth graders whose parents monitor their phone use rose from 58 percent to 71 percent, and the share of sixth graders who keep devices out of the bedroom at night rose from 43 percent to 57 percent. Concord families are doing their part.

And it shows. Our district has a goal to cut student stress in half from 2022 levels. Since then, high schoolers reporting high stress from home fell from 36 percent to 19 percent. Stress from schoolwork has barely moved, from 64 percent to 59 percent.

The survey only asks about screen time after school, on students' own time. It doesn't ask about screens during the school day. I'm grateful the superintendent has agreed to look into that this year, and I'd like to help.

My ask tonight: that the district follow through this year with a screen time report by grade, class, and application, shared with families each term, so all of us can see the whole school day. Families are doing our part at home. We'd love a partner at school. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected: I'm the parent of a fourth grader at Alcott. Thank you for the time you give this community.

I'm here because of a moment that made you pay attention. For example: the evening my child showed me a video they'd found on their school Chromebook. A sentence or two on how that felt, and what you did next.

I learned that our school devices mostly work by blocking harmful sites one at a time. The internet is too big for that approach to keep up. A 2023 Common Sense Media report found that one in three teens had viewed pornography while at school, and nearly half of those used a school-owned device to do it. That isn't a Concord number, and I'm not suggesting anyone here has been careless. It tells me that blocking has limits everywhere.

There's another approach: an allow-list. Student devices reach only the sites the district has approved, and teachers can ask to add new ones when they need them. For younger students, that matches how we already think about safety in the building. We don't leave every door open and lock the risky rooms one by one.

I'd also like a way to see what my child does on a school device. Our filtering vendor offers a parent and caregiver app that shows screen time, and offering it to families would help us be real partners at home.

My ask tonight: that elementary and middle school devices reach approved sites only, and that families be offered the parent app from the district's filtering vendor. one way you'd help Thank you.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected. Thank you for your service to our schools.

I came tonight with a simple question: what apps does my child use at school? What happened when you tried to find out. For example: I counted the logins on my second grader's device and stopped at a dozen.

I'm not asking because I assume something is wrong. I'm asking because I can't see it. There's no public list of the tools Concord students use, what data each one collects, or how much time students spend on them.

That matters because the industry as a whole has a poor record here. A 2022 Internet Safety Labs study of 1,357 apps that U.S. schools recommended or required found that 96 percent shared children's data with third parties, most often advertising and analytics companies.

A list would help with something teachers and families both feel, too: there are a lot of apps. Every login is another place for a child's attention and data to go. Fewer, well-chosen tools would be easier for teachers to manage and easier for families to support at home.

My ask tonight: that the district publish an inventory of every student-facing tool, with the data it collects, who it's shared with, and how long it's kept. That it publish a count of the apps in use at each grade this fall, paid and free, and reduce that list by June 2027 to those with a proven purpose. And that families receive a screen time report each term. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected: my child is in seventh grade at EGB @ CMS. Thank you for being here tonight.

Starting in August, Google began expanding Gemini in Google Classroom to students of all ages by default, including on devices issued to Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School students. How you found out, and how it felt. For example: I learned about it from my child, not from the school.

I don't think this is anyone's fault. AI features increasingly arrive through routine software updates, inside tools students already use. Nobody in this room decided to give twelve-year-olds a chatbot. It arrived on its own. That's why I think the answer is a default, rather than a debate about each feature after it lands.

The early research gives me pause. In a 2025 study published in PNAS, high school students who practiced math with unrestricted access to GPT-4 later scored 17 percent lower on an exam taken without it. what you've noticed about how your child learns best At this age, working through a hard problem is the learning.

My ask tonight: that generative AI features stay turned off for students until each one has been reviewed, and, as an immediate step, that Gemini be removed from Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School devices while that review is underway. When AI use does resume, I'd ask for a simple, well-publicized opt-out with no penalty to students. Thank you for the care you bring to this.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected. Thank you for listening.

I'm here because of a question I couldn't answer at my own kitchen table. For example: my child spends half an hour a night on a math app, and when I asked what it was teaching, neither of us could say.

I'm not against technology in classrooms. I'm for tools that work, and the evidence on that is thinner than most of us would guess. A 2023 LearnPlatform review of the 100 most-used EdTech tools in U.S. classrooms found that only 26 had research meeting federal ESSA evidence standards. The rest may be fine. We just don't know.

Federal law already gives us a way to ask. ESSA sorts research into tiers, from strong evidence down to a reasonable rationale. Asking which tier a product's research reaches, who paid for the study, and which students it studied is ordinary good purchasing.

I'd also ask that we judge results by what students remember and can do away from the screen, not by minutes logged or badges earned. what you notice when your child explains what they learned

My ask tonight: that before any student-facing tool is adopted, the district share the learning need it meets, the research behind it and its ESSA evidence tier, and how results will be measured away from the screen. And that learning gains be confirmed by independent research, not studies funded by the company selling the product. Thank you for your work.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected. Thank you for all you do.

I came tonight because I read our district's Strategic Plan, and I agree with it. Initiative 4.4 says the district will "partner with parents and community members to identify and engage with best practices for student technology, including social media use." Outcome 2.3 sets a goal of cutting student stress in half from 2022 levels. Those are the right goals. The 2026 student survey shows how far we've come at home, where high schoolers' stress fell from 36 percent to 19 percent, and how far we have to go at school, where it barely moved, from 64 percent to 59 percent.

Why these goals matter to your family. For example: what you've seen technology do to your child's sleep, focus, or mood, or what has helped.

In a community survey of Concord public-school families this spring, 48 of 71 said the district communicates about technology "not well." It's a community snapshot, not a scientific poll, but it tells me there's room to build the partnership the plan describes. The District Technology Committee is the natural place to do it.

My ask tonight: that this year, the District Technology Committee post agendas ahead of its meetings, let parent and caregiver representatives add items, publish summaries, set a timeline with clear deliverables, and report regularly to this committee on what was reviewed, decided, and why. And that technology decisions be weighed against the goal of cutting student stress in half. one way you'd be glad to help Thank you for writing such a clear plan. I'd like to help carry it out.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected: my child is a sophomore at CCHS, or, I'm a junior at CCHS. Thank you for having us.

I'm here about phones during the school day. What you've seen or heard. For example: my child tells me lunch is quiet because everyone is on their phone.

Most of the conversation about phones is about class time. I want to talk about the rest of the day: lunch, free blocks, and the minutes between classes. Those are the times when friendships are built and connection happens. It's where a student notices a friend having a hard day, joins a new table, or works out a disagreement face to face. It's where teenagers learn how to be members of a community. Those moments are crucial, and students shouldn't spend them buried in a phone.

Right now at Concord-Carlisle High School, phones only need to be put away during class, and the rule doesn't reach in-between times at all. At the Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School, phones are off and in backpacks all day. The 2026 student survey shows the difference: from 2024 to 2026, the share of sixth graders who felt depressed for two weeks or more was cut in half, from 21 percent to 10 percent. Among high schoolers, it held at 14 percent.

Secure storage from first bell to last protects all of it, and it means no teacher has to enforce a rule alone. In one recent working paper on U.S. schools that adopted locking pouches, teacher-reported phone use in class fell from 61 percent to 13 percent.

Revising the phone policy is already one of this committee's goals. I'd love for Concord to get there in a way that fits our schools, ahead of any state requirement.

My ask tonight, and it's one this committee can act on directly: adopt a phone policy with secure storage at all schools, including CCHS, from first bell to last, so lunch, free time, and passing time are protected too. And enforce it consistently in every building. Families can help with communication, logistics, and backing it up at home. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is your name, I live at your street address, and how you're connected. Thank you for your time.

I'm here because what brought you tonight.

Why it matters to you, in a few sentences.

I'm asking the change you hope for, or one of the shared asks. Thank you.