CUSTOMER STORY

Mount Vernon’s Community-First Approach is a Blueprint for Cell Phone Policy Success

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Background

Customer: Mount Vernon City Schools
Region: Mount Vernon, Central Knox County, OH
Challenge: State-mandated cell phone policy
Solution: Community-led policy development with ThoughtExchange

Key Results:

Higher participation:

1111 open-ended comments collected

Real-time data:

3 days to analyze and present to Board

Instant action:

0 major infractions from 3600 students

The challenge

On May 15, 2024, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed bill HB 250, requiring schools to have a cell phone policy in place to limit student cell phone use on school grounds.

Mount Vernon Superintendent William Seder Jr. wanted to have a policy in place before the 2024/2025 school year started, which gave the district two months to develop and implement it.

"It’s very important for our district to listen to all stakeholders when creating policy. With ThoughtExchange, we are able to tap into our community voice and create balanced policies that our students, staff, and parents all support."

William Seder Jr., Superintendent, Mount Vernon City Schools

What ThoughtExchange partners are saying

“It’s night and day from our previous survey provider, which took months to return our results, and by then, the data was no longer useful. ThoughtExchange allows our administrators to focus on actions sooner; rather than having to dig through the data, it’s readily available to them." Dr. Tammy Blakely, Executive Director, Student Support Services, Irvine Unified School District

“When you ask open-ended questions, and you have 300 students or 150 staff members respond, it’s challenging to go through those one by one. Having the AI do that for us instantly was so helpful. I could say, ‘Here's the summary. These are the top three things they said, and these are our students’ top concerns.’ ThoughtExchange neatly packaged them so the data is easy to present. I can show a summary of those open-ended questions, where you get to the heart of those concerns." Caitlyn Kienitz, Communications and Marketing Coordinator, Eastpointe Community Schools, Eastpointe, MI

The solution

Superintendent Seder Jr. wanted to engage students, staff, and parents to ensure the district’s policy was community-led.

Using an Exchange, the district engaged 1,275 constituents, collecting 1,111 responses to the open-ended question: “What thoughts, concerns, or recommendations do you have regarding students' use of cell phones during school day?”

The results

Mount Vernon left the Exchange open for two weeks, closing it on July 15, 2024. ThoughtExchange’s AI provided instant summaries of the district’s qualitative feedback, providing Superintendent Seder Jr. with a thorough analysis of student, staff, and parent feedback. He was able to present the results and the district’s community-led policy on July 18, 2024—just three days after the Exchange closed.

ThoughtExchange highlights:

Mount Vernon experienced virtually no implementation friction with their cell phone policy by using ThoughtExchange to engage students, staff, and parents in their own words and develop a community-led plan based on their feedback.

The Exchange facilitated anti-bias community prioritization, contrasting the frequency of responses with what was most important to participants:

“Bullying” was mentioned 23 times out of 1,111 comments—but high participant ratings ranked it the top theme.
Most comments mentioned the impact of cell phones on academic achievement, but participant ratings refocused the conversation on student mental health and well-being.
The Differences analytics tool revealed that while participants were polarized on the topic of a complete restriction of cell phone use during school hours, they found common ground on its use between classes and during breaks.

“People felt empowered because their input directly shaped the policy. We avoided a one-size-fits-all approach: elementary students (K–5) have phones fully restricted; middle school students (6–8) may only check phones briefly during transitions; and high school students follow the same transition rules with added use during lunch. Across all levels, cell phones are not permitted during instructional time, and upon implementation, we received universal parental support and approval. Most importantly, since putting this plan in place, we have had no major infractions related to cell phone use.”
William Seder Jr., Superintendent, Mount Vernon City Schools

Why ThoughtExchange?

Superintendent Seder Jr. knew that using ThoughtExchange, he would be able to get a large quantity of data from a wide range of stakeholders—and the platform’s AI would analyze, theme, and summarize the data in seconds. He chose us so he could hear his community's authentic voice and act on it, demonstrating his commitment to transparency and trust in district policy-making.

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