Former school board member urges Newton to reexamine cellphone ban for marching band students

Liz Hammerly, a former school board member, asked the Newton school board this past week to make revisions to the no cellphone use policy, which she said is negatively impacting marching band students who want to use a phone app for drills and whose instructional time may extend into practices before school starts.

Currently, cellphone use is prohibited during instructional time, which effectively makes up the entire school day. However, Hammerly said that since the high school principal considers band instructional, the morning marching band practices before classes extend that instructional time even further.

For the past three years, students have used the Ultimate Drill Book (UDB) app for rehearsals. The app was purchased by the high school’s boosters, but Hammerly said the current band director did not elect to purchase it this year because of the cellphone policy adopted by the school board.

“This tool has helped with efficiency and execution as it puts visual music to the marching on the football field,” Hammerly said to the school board on Aug. 25. “It provides much more than a list of coordinates and numbers. Kids are able to see where they are on a broad scale in relationship to their peers.”

Students are also able to study steps and formations outside of school with ease and relearn what they missed in class. Newton News also learned that UDB incorporates the marching band’s music into the drill, helping students know when they need to come in and play during certain parts of the show.

The app uses visuals to show students where they are on the field in accordance with others. Without the app this year, students have shifted back to coordinate sheets, which can be considerably more difficult to comprehend. Students find it harder to work together and be in sync without the app.

Newton News learned some students are finding it more difficult to learn drills this year without the use of their cellphone and the UDB app. To them, the physical image on their cellphones is more helpful than the coordinates sheet with its list of steps and yard lines. Students say they’re not working as efficiently.

Hammerly argued having co-curricular classes like marching band count as instructional time outside of normal school hours limits students’ use of technology. She urged the school board to exercise common sense for the common good of student musicians. Marching band, she added, is on the rise.

“Scores have increased the past three years and we competed — in the ‘big school’ category — against the 5A schools,” Hammerly said.

Other schools like Pella High School have adopted more common sense policies regarding cellphone usage, Hammerly suggested. She relented that there is no value in purchasing the app now as it takes time for a quote to be put on the agenda and then be approved by school board.

“I just hope we can collectively agree to kinda of move to common sense and move forward,” Hammerly said. “I’m afraid if we don’t it will cost the district good families, those who can and those who do. I was privately messaged by three parents from Pella who just couldn’t fathom how this was possible.”

Hammerly added that Pella, a 4A school, “pounds on” the 5A schools in marching band. To her, that is a community focused on success.

“Let’s make this make sense and find a way to move it forward for the 80 percent who are good instead of fearing the 20 percent who are bad,” Hammerly said.

Earlier this year, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill banning cellphone use during instructional time in the state’s public K-12 school districts. High school and middle school leaders in Newton informed the board in late July how it would enforce the cellphone ban at both buildings.

On the first offense, the phone or electronic device will be taken away and turned into the office. The student can then pick up their device at the end of the day.

The second offense will have the phone or device taken away and stored in the office, but it will have to be picked up by a parent.

All subsequent offenses may result in an in-school suspension or out-of-school suspension and what administrators deemed as other “appropriate measures.”