Wasatch County School District wants to lock students' cellphones away for the entire school day, using the same magnetically sealing pouch system Park City schools have run since 2024.
Superintendent Garrick Peterson and other district leaders pitched the stricter policy to the Wasatch County Board of Education on Thursday, Aug. 27, KPCW reported. The proposal would ban phones from bell to bell, not just during class time.
The district estimates the pouch system would cost about $200,000. Board members expressed interest but said any adopted policy would likely not take effect until the 2027-2028 school year.
Before presenting the plan, Wasatch County administrators visited Park City High School to see the Yondr locking pouches in action. Teachers there lock each student's phone inside a pouch at the start of the day and unlock it after the final bell.
Park City School District piloted the Yondr system at the now-closed Treasure Mountain Junior High during the 2024-2025 school year. The program expanded to cover every student in grades 6 through 12 in 2025-2026 and continues in the current school year, according to the Park City Education Foundation.
The results caught Wasatch County's attention. During the pilot year at TMJH, the pouch program and a related student-support coordinator together contributed to a 72% reduction in behavioral incidents compared with the prior year, the foundation reported. Suspensions over the same early-year period dropped from 21 to five, and weekly student conflicts handled by counselors fell from one or two per week to three total.
Those figures reflect the combined effect of the phone pouches and the school's Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) coordinator, not the phone ban alone.
Park City High School Principal Caleb Fine said in a November 2025 foundation update that the school was "very happy to have a cell phone-free school" and had seen a more engaged student body since adopting the pouches.
Midway parent Jocelyn Gardner spoke in favor of the ban at the Aug. 27 board meeting. She cited a University of Texas study finding that just having a cellphone nearby inhibits concentration.
"Taking this fight off the table isn't policing our children. It's giving their agency back," Gardner told the board.
Before Park City adopted the pouches, a May 2024 survey of more than 1,500 parents and staff across three Park City schools found 85% supported a cellphone ban. The TMJH pilot was funded almost entirely by the Alnoba Lewis Family Foundation and the Roberts Rothe Fund for Perpetual Giving.
The Wasatch County Board of Education has not scheduled a formal vote on the proposal.
