By a vote of 4-2-1 (Jerrod Anderson and Lori Silverman voting ‘no’ and chair Tate Gould abstaining), the Falls Church City Public Schools’ elected board members gave final approval to a student cell phone use policy that at the high school level limits a ban to “instructional time.”

The policy will be revisited in a year.

The policy will be officially announced next Monday and will go into effect immediately. “This is a hard decision and we’ll see how it goes,” said Ann Sherwood who voted in favor along with Amie Murphy, Kathleen Tysse and Bethany Henderson.

While cell phone use will not be permitted at all campuses during the school day, according to the policy adopted Tuesday night in a virtual meeting (due to the snow storm) “students at Meridian High School are not permitted to use personal electronic devices on school property during instructional time unless specifically requested by a teacher or administrator to do so for educational purposes, except as permitted by regulation. For purposes of th is policy, instructional time included classes and assemblies.”