SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP, Ohio — After several months of pilot testing, Lakeside High School and Junior High will fully roll out a digital hall pass system for students.
"It’s been a huge game changer for us," High School Principal Douglas Wetherholt said.
The software, SmartPass, phases out the old paper hall pass slips, instead keeping track of students outside the classroom through an app.
"It tells me everybody in the hallway at all times, exactly where they came from and exactly where they’re going," Wetherhold added.
There is no GPS tracking, but educators do know who is not in class, where they’re supposed to be, and they know how long students have been in the hallways.
And at the neighboring middle school, it’s getting a full roll out there, too, after seeing a dramatic decrease in hallway traffic during class.
"In the case of an emergency, it takes the guessing game out," Lakeside Junior High School principal John Pinto said. "Where is so and so? We know he’s supposed to be in the bathroom. If we had to evacuate the building, there’s a pretty good chance he went out this door.
It comes just as educators are being told to crack down on phones in schools, with Gov. Mike DeWine signing into law a bill that requires all school districts to establish some sort of cell phone policy aimed at minimizing students using cell phones.
"Cell phones in classrooms pose a significant challenge to learning," DeWine said during the bill signing in May.
But in this case, for this use, educators in Ashtabula told News 5 it has streamlined a clunky system in dire need of an upgrade for decades.
"A lot of things in the schools when it comes with phones can be a distraction, but when you have an application and it can be a tool, that’s where it gets positive," Pinto explained. "It changed things pretty quickly because it held people accountable."
Wetherholt added that since they started the program, he has received several calls from other school districts looking to implement something similar.
Students return to Lakeside High School and Lakeside Junior High on Aug. 21.
