CLAREMONT — At Stevens High School, the administration is instituting a complete ban on cell phones during the school day for the upcoming academic year.

In Newport, cell phones will be banned during the school day at the middle school and the policy restricting phone use during classes at the high school will be strictly enforced with the possibility of a student losing the privilege of having a phone at school.

Administrators are hoping to limit disruptions to instructional time.

At Stevens, where school starts Wednesday, all students will receive a secure pouch in which to store their cell phone for the day. Yondr, a San Francisco-based company started in 2014, makes the small pouches, which lock automatically when closed.

“Students will maintain possession of their phone and only use them once their pouches are opened at the end of the day,” states a Welcome Back letter to returning students.

The students are responsible to bring their pouches to school each day.

“The intent of these pouches is to put another level of uninterrupted instruction time at SHS,” states the letter.

Stevens Principal Chris Pratt initiated the pouch idea and included the full explanation in the student handbook. Pratt said the School Board’s policy leaves it up to the administration to decide how cell phones are used or not used in school.

“It was my decision with everything going on in school these days,” Pratt said about the pouches.

Elsewhere in the Upper Valley, Hanover and Hartford also ban cell phones during instructional time but allow students to keep phones with them during the school day.

In Hartford, after a third offense and all subsequent offenses, the student creates a plan with an administrator on how to correct behavior and the plan is shared with parents.

Hanover adopted its cell phone usage policy in 2001. It allows the devices on school property but they “must be turned completely off during classes and in other places of learning such as resource rooms, the library, the Language Arts Lab, and the Computer Lab,” the Hanover High School handbook states.

Claremont School Board Chairwoman Heather Whitney said the board did not object to the pouches.

“The policy aligns with our mission of improving the educational environment, reducing cyberbullying and distraction and improving socialization among students,” Whitney said.

There will be obvious attempts by some students to circumvent the pouch requirements, which Whitney said is to be expected, but she added that the board supports Pratt’s goals for the high school environment and the need to rein in cell phone use.

“It is a tool a lot of kids can’t manage properly,” she said. “Inappropriate pictures were being taken and there is cyberbullying.”

Pratt said there will be eight “unlocking” stations in the school, three of which will be portable and kept by staff. Juniors and seniors with off-campus lunch privileges can have their pouches unlocked before leaving.

As for objections from parents and students, Pratt said he has only heard concerns from a few parents and students.

“We have procedures in place so this can be done fairly and equitably,” Pratt said.

According to the letter, Yondr said schools with which it has partnered have shown improvement in academic performance, student behavior and student classroom engagement.

Students that damage their pouch or are found with their phone and refuse to surrender it to staff will face disciplinary action under the policy.

Newport, like Stevens, already had banned cell phones during instructional time but was seeing the policy violated repeatedly, SAU 43 Superintendent Donna Magoon said.

“The meat of our policy has not changed,” Magoon said. “There are certain times it can be used but it turned into kids using it all day long. Parents were texting, they were texting other kids while in class, going to the bathroom for 15 minutes and texting or videotaping in halls. Some students had headphones on listening to music.”

That is what we were seeing,” Magoon said, adding she knows of students taking phone calls during class. “There was not a day that went by without a discussion of kids in classroom violating the policy”

At the middle school, students will be required to put their phones in an assigned locker for the day. The district will supply locks.

“It is supposed to be in your pocket and turned off. That seldom happened,” Magoon said, explaining the reason for the stricter enforcement.

At the high school, students can have their phone or music device with them but are to shut them off during instruction. However, in cases where a teacher sees a need — taking a photo of something on the board or marking the date of an upcoming test — students will be permitted to take out their phone at the teacher’s instruction.

“We are teaching them to use their phones appropriately,” Magoon said. “We are saying they need to be put away.”

Both districts have penalties in place for violations, ranging from losing the phone privileges for a brief time to being permanently banned from bringing a device to campus.

“If you can’t follow the rules and procedures in place for an educational facility, you can’t have it,” Magoon said.

Magoon said she feared the worst in terms of objections from parents and students on social media but has been “pleasantly surprised” so far.

“I had one parent say, ‘It’s about time. Phones don’t belong in the classroom.’ It has been really good to see the support we have gotten,” Magoon said.

Both districts plan on putting up posters in the schools to announce the new procedures.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.