With the 2024/2025 school year in sight, the Greater Victoria School District (SD61) plans to roll out a new cellphone policy that will limit when students can use mobile devices.
This comes after the province's Jan. 26 cellphone restriction announcement, which mandates school boards to ensure their codes of conduct include one or more statements limiting students' use of personal digital devices at schools. Each school will have to update its own code of conduct to align with the language from its relevant school board.
“By removing the distractions from digital devices, students can focus on their education,” the province said on its website. “This leads to better learning outcomes and helps support their mental health and social connections.”
SD61 superintendent Deb Whitten echoed this message.
“When we look at ... mental health and well-being, we’re looking at opportunities for kids to interact with other students and for them to be off of digital devices for periods of time,” she said.
At elementary and middle schools, for example, "The use of personal digital devices outside of instructional hours is not permitted on school grounds, during field trips, or other school activities," reads SD61's June 17 update about personal digital device restrictions. In secondary schools, "The use of personal digital devices outside of instructional hours is permitted provided the use does not result in a privacy breach, bullying/harassment, or illegal activity."
For the most part, teachers will enforce these rules.
"There’s teacher autonomy to pull that information forward," said Whitten. "Each school and each staff group, collectively with the district, will support how and when and where those conversations and lessons will occur.”
There's more happening this year in SD61 than a new cellphone policy.
Parents can expect a new school. Construction began on the new Cedar Hill Middle School in 2023. This will replace the current 100-year-old building, which has an H-1 seismic ranking, meaning it's as vulnerable to earthquakes as a building can get.
“Concrete and structural steel are close to getting completed. The site itself will begin to look like a building soon,” said Whitten, who anticipates that students will be able to move into the $46.5 million replacement school at the start of the 2025/2026 school year.
SD61 is looking into other seismic upgrades, including those for Sundance-Bank Elementary School. Whitten said she isn’t sure whether this will require a new building or additions to the current one. SD61 released a survey this month which closes on Aug. 31, to hear from the public about these possible upgrades.
“The expansion project is driven by increasing enrolment projections, and the fact that both the existing Sundance-Bank Elementary School and the closed Bank Street School building have ... seismic rankings of H-1,” said SD61 in a Facebook post.
SD61 is also looking at the possibility of seismically upgrading Shoreline Middle School, which also has an H-1 risk designation.
In addition to school safety, enrolment levels are a concern in Greater Victoria schools, as overcrowded classrooms can negatively affect students’ learning outcomes.
Whitten anticipates enrolment levels will be higher this year, but said SD61 will work to accommodate all students.
“Overall, we have space for all students, including ones that are coming in," she said. “There always will be some schools that are reaching capacity, and in those situations, we work closely with the school and the family to either find space in that school or in the closest school.”
