School screen time report due Tuesday
It's June 1. Local mothers await W-JCC school superintendent's report on student screen time at Tuesday's school board meeting. Fired Virginia Tech rector says he won't step down.
A group of local mothers will be listening closely tomorrow when the Williamsburg-James City County School Board receives a report on how much time students are spending at computer screens.
Claudia Kessel, whose child is a student at Matthew Whaley Elementary School, exchanged emails with the school board chair voicing her concerns about too much screen time.
“As a district, I think we need to seriously re-examine what I believe is an enormous over-use of technology, especially in the elementary schools, which I think is harmful to students and detrimental to their learning,” Kessel noted in her email to Chair Andrea M. Donner.
School board members punted last month on a decision to pay $375,246 for AI-driven programs that would have been used to practice English writing in grades 6-12.
Donner asked Superintendent Daniel Keever to provide more information “helping the board to get more comfortable” with AI and the use of technology in the classroom.
Keever is scheduled to update the board on a staff study on how much time students are spending in front of screens at the board’s work session Tuesday. Another session is scheduled July 7 to review the use of artificial intelligence.
Kessel said she and other mothers concerned with excessive screen time plan to attend the work session to hear the presentation Tuesday. While the work session does not provide for public comment, the mothers plan to send a joint letter with feedback on what they hear.
Members of Williamsburg-area social media pages that discuss school issues have been trading concerns for months about excessive screen time at schools.
One mother, Melinda Fenick, told Williamsburg Watch she believes her 19-year-old was hurt by too much screen time in Henrico Public Schools and then W-JCC schools.
“I watched attention spans decline, handwriting and reading stamina weaken, and face-to-face engagement diminish over time.” Fenick told us. “Technology certainly has a place in education, but I believe the balance shifted too far, too fast, especially for students who needed structure, direct instruction, and personal connection.”
Kessel told the school chair in her email exchange that “the most effective investment we can make to help our kids learn is investing in their teachers: a talented, energetic, engaging, and experienced teacher is the single greatest factor in whether our kids learn the core academic material and whether they enjoy school – or whether they become disengaged, have behavioral problems, and end up with poor academic achievement.”
Other government meetings this week
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