School board's 'back to basics' resolution sparks national interest

A “back-to-basics” resolution passed by the Burke County Board of Education is garnering attention across the country, and as a result, members of the local board are being hailed as “trailblazers.”

School officials from as far away as Vermont, Tennessee, and Las Vegas have reached out to BOE members for guidance in adopting similar resolutions and policies.

The Burke board recently adopted a resolution recommending the use of pen and paper instruction as the primary mode of learning in classrooms.

Within a few days of the decision, a school board member from Hamilton County, Tenn., contacted Burke’s Vice Chairman James Wycoff and asked for a meeting to discuss the resolution. The district, home to the city of Chattanooga in the southwest corner of the state, is interested in exploring and possibly adopting similar guidelines.

School officials from Clark County, Nev., home to the nation’s third-largest school district, Las Vegas, also contacted Burke officials for information.

This week, Laura Derrendinger, a smartphone-free schools advocate, reached out to The Paper for additional information regarding the resolution. Derrendinger, who has been a champion on issues regarding children’s mental health, successfully supported state legislation to ban cellphones in Vermont schools.

She and a nationwide Screentime Action Network have set their sights on reducing the time students spend using technology in classrooms and she wants to use the Burke County resolution as a model for upcoming legislation in the Green Mountain State.

“Our law in Vermont that just passed has both a bell-to-bell K-12 no phone or personal devices allowed policy, and most importantly, it prohibits schools from asking or requiring students to use social media,” Derrendinger stated.

Burke BOE Chairwoman Tiana Beachler and Wycoff said while the board recognizes the vital and appropriate role technology plays in modern education, they believe its use should be balanced with proven, traditional methods. Burke County residents, especially those with children attending the public schools, seem to largely agree.

Beachler, Wycoff, and Burke Superintendent Dr. Mike Swan said they have received an “overwhelmingly positive response” from the public. And while some educators at first worried that technology would be removed from classrooms, Swan was quick to assure them that is not the intent of the resolution.

“That’s a misconception,” he said. “We’re not removing technology; we just want educators to use a balanced approach when planning lessons.”

Beachler said varied assignments and activities provide a better fit for some students, and teachers, who best know their pupils, will be encouraged to explore what meets students’ needs.

“When I think of tech, I think of it as a tool,” she continued. “This is just another tool for teachers to use. We don’t want to take anything back. We don’t want to regress. We want to give them more.”

Beachler and Wycoff said the development of the resolution was a joint effort. They, along with board member Sonya Rockett, discussed the idea and approached Swan about the potential for a resolution.

Beachler, Wycoff, and Swan hammered out the wording that was presented at the board’s June 16 meeting. The resolution passed with a unanimous vote.

Beachler explained that board members heard a common theme when they spoke to constituents: things changed in the schools during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So, we as a team started to think critically about what changed,” she stated.

“We got thrown into having to use tech, almost overnight, to keep kids engaged, to check in on them, and to get them some kind of curriculum (during the COVID shutdown),” Swan noted. “Not just Burke County, but as a nation, we took that step and then we didn’t go back (to more traditional methods).”

Swan said the resolution prompted calls from a number of his peers across the state. “I’ve had some superintendents reach out to me and say, ‘How are you going to do this?’”

“And it’s a simple answer. The building-level administrators will collect anecdotal information they get on a regular basis, walking through classrooms,” Swan explained.

Swan said pen-and-paper assignments won’t be regimented in lesson plans. “Folks may be thinking ‘I can’t use technology,’ and that’s not the case.”

When asked if the resolution would likely become policy, she paused thoughtfully. “In my perspective, the resolution is sufficient,” she said.

“It is our educators and our administrators who know, in practicality, what this is going to look like,” Beachler added. “You want to be really careful about putting things in policy, when they are ongoing and changing. What I think the resolution does, it says, ‘Hey, as a team, this is the direction we want to go. How do we make this a reality?’”

Swan added the district is not looking to over-supervise what happens in classrooms.

“I think if you put things in policy, it’s a very regimented form of micromanaging,” he said. “We want that autonomy in the classroom for our folks.”

He said the resolution will be discussed at faculty meetings and at monthly principal meetings. Implementation will look different across grade levels and disciplines.

“You’ve got new teachers coming in who were taught, primarily, how to teach digitally — that’s all they know,” Wycoff said. “Swan said building administrators will guide their staff in appropriate use of pen and paper.”

Swan said the resolution will not affect the many Burke County high schoolers who take courses online through Western Piedmont Community College and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Beachler stated with a smile. “This is how we do things in Burke County.”