FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors heard positive news Sept. 9 on the new cellphone policy at Mt. Blue High School.

The policy requires students to secure their devices in Yondr pouches, tamper-proof cases that lock magnetically and are opened only at the end of the school day.

Principal Joel Smith said it gives students the ability to bring their phones to school and have possession of them. “They don’t take them. Students will ‘pouch’ their device. They can ‘un-pouch’ the device at the end of the day,” he said.

Smith said about 50 students are still connecting to the school’s public Wi-Fi, down from around 1,000 last year.

He added that cellphones have been a concern not just at Mt. Blue but nationally for several years.

“We, as educators, have had many discussions and have worked to develop a practical solution,” he said.

“Last year, we collaborated with several board members, parents, teachers, students and building administrators to establish a stricter policy for this school year,” Smith said. “So far in our first three weeks everything has gone very smoothly. Teachers are very pleased with the transition, and we’ve had very few issues with students breaking the policy. The feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. Students generally seem more engaged and are interacting face-to-face.”

The district used money from last year’s budget to buy the $30 pouches and the base units needed to lock and unlock them.

Galen Dalrymple, director of Foster Career and Technical Education Center at the Mt. Blue campus, said school board members and staff supported the choice of Yondr.

Superintendent Chris Elkington said bandwidth issues that have plagued the district in the past have not surfaced since the policy began. He added that he has visited the high school six times this year and twice during lunch, where “it was nice to see people look at each other.”

“It is difficult to put in a change, it just seems like a different environment,” Elkington said, noting the overall atmosphere was “very positive.” He emphasized the reason behind the change: “The policy was always about students keeping phones put away. Enforcement was difficult for the staff at (Mt. Blue campus) and we adjusted the policy to add more to the approaches that could be used to keep cellphones from interfering with class. We have not had any issues in grades K-8 in my four-plus years as superintendent.”

Assistant Superintendent Monique Poulin said visits to schools on the first day showed “lots of happy smiling faces from our students and staff.”