New year new things

Written by Zari Burton & Austen Ward |

Schedule changes

A new school year brought many new changes and processes to student life on campus. From how we spend our time to how we use technology, life at CAC looks different than last year. We sat down with our new Secondary Principal, Mrs. Parker, and CAC President, Dr. Andrew Stewart, to learn more about the new school standard and how she came to CAC.

In April when Mrs. Parker first took this job, she made it her top priority to get feedback from all the teachers on what they thought was good and what they thought needed to change. One of the biggest issues she was told was chapel running long and interfering with 4th period classes.

Mrs. Parker chose to add two minutes to 4th period so that if chapel ran long, teachers would still have enough instruction time. Since Yondr pouches were added to the morning routine, Mrs. Parker decided to add three minutes to 1st period so teachers could have time to, “Greet. Check. Lock the tech.”

Yondr Bags

“The state law is no cell phones during the school day,” Mrs. Parker said, referring to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Bell to Bell, No Cell Act. “The why behind that comes from giving schools some support from higher than just their own entity. The biggest thing was to take away the temptation and alleviate the chance of it coming out… With the actual Yondr bags, it helps support our teachers. They don’t have to constantly sit there and say ‘put your phone up, put your phone up…’ If this is a school wide policy, there doesn’t have to be the good guy/bad guy thing.” 

Dr. Stewart said he studied data to help him and the school’s administration understand how phones in schools were affecting students. In one of their examinations, The Village School of Naples, a private school in Florida, reported positive data related to their students’ mental health, social interactions and overall academic performance after being phone free for a year. Florida was the first state to implement phone-free schools, but 22 states now have similar laws. 

“When the state comes out with mandates, as a general rule of thumb, we follow them,” Dr. Stewart said. “Community is built through conversation. Community is built around the table, whether that’s a table at lunch or a table in the classroom. Sometimes it’s hard to fulfill community even if your cellphone is buzzing in your pocket. I can say that as a grown man, it’s hard for me. We’ve lost the art of conversation. That’s not a kid thing — that’s a society thing.”

Tech Free Days

Mrs. Parker definitely agrees with Dr. Stewart, which is why she came up with tech free days, something new to CAC this year that will keep classrooms completely technology free for an entire school day. Mrs. Parker explained that this will be a “100% trial and error thing.” Mrs. Parker also says that one of the reasons behind tech free days is that she believes the art of writing has disappeared. 

“On the first tech free day, I’m going to allow the teachers to take roll, but then after that, we’re going to try to not use any technology to teach,” Mrs. Parker said. “It’s a challenge for them, too! I’m going to challenge all of us to try not to be on our technology all day and just be 100% present with everything.”

The first tech free day will be Sept. 12, and it will occur once a month on a random Friday. Mrs. Parker thinks it could be very beneficial for both teachers and students, but if it turns out to be unsuccessful, she said, ”I’ll own it, and we don’t ever have to do it again.”

Settling in to a new home

With her first week of school complete, Mrs. Parker acknowledged it might take some time for our student community to adjust to changes for the year. She also said that she really loves how CAC feels and interacting with the students here.

“The students are so sincere,” she said. “The very first day, I asked so many students how their day was, and I couldn’t remember one who didn’t turn around and ask me how my day was. That’s just a very rare quality, and I think the genuineness of the students is one of the most positive things that has impacted me already.”