Updated September 25: the board adopted the revised Policy 3630 on August 17. The adopted version keeps the requirement described below: a high schooler who brings a phone to school needs the district-approved app installed and working. The app is The Commons, named in NonStop Local's August 31 report. The full adopted policy is in the policy explorer. The rest of this post is the July 27 recap, as reported July 29.

The BSD7 board met Monday, July 27. Two votes, two discussions. One of those discussions came with draft policy language, linked from the agenda.

A note on timing. This went up on August 14, from reporting done on July 29. The as-of dates below are deliberate: everything here was checked against the packet and the policy draft on that date, and I've marked plainly where the record was not yet public. Minutes are not posted to a standing archive, so the district's board agendas page is where the official record of the votes will appear.

The phone policy draft is public now

In the preview I wrote that the packet didn't include the proposed new language. The agenda item links out to a working draft of Policy 3630, and the draft is readable.

Two things to hold onto before the details. This is a draft, and it is first reading only. District policy requires two readings, so no vote happened Monday and no vote could have. And the document is live and editable by the district; what's described here is its state as of Wednesday, July 29.

What it would require

At the high school level, the draft adopts what it calls "a phone-free policy during all instructional periods." Outside the classroom, device use would be "limited to academic, emergency, or medical use."

The draft pairs the policy with what it describes as "a privacy-first geofencing mobile application installed on student devices" that limits access to distracting apps during school hours. And for high schoolers, it's the condition of bringing a phone:

All high school students are to have the district-approved third-party app installed and functioning on their personal devices as a condition for bringing phones to campus. If the student does not download the app, they can opt to leave their phone at home or in the school office.

Tampering with the app, or trying to disable it, "will result in disciplinary action in accordance with the student code of conduct." The draft itself doesn't spell out consequences beyond that. It defers to the Student Handbook.

The draft also carries a privacy assurance: the app "does not provide the school with access to personal messages, location, photos, browsing activity, or other private content," and administrators see "only high-level indicators" about whether a device is operating within policy.

One detail if you read the full draft: the existing language permitting high schoolers to use phones before and after class in common areas sits alongside the new phone-free structure. The version adopted August 17 keeps both.

How this compares to what was announced last fall

The direction isn't new. BSD7 said in November 2025 that its high schools would go phone-free starting fall 2026, with Superintendent Casey Bertram framing it as a well-being measure: "The real goal is to give students a break from the addictive nature of social media during school hours."

What's new in this draft is the enforcement mechanism: an app on the phone as the condition of bringing it to school.

Open questions as of July 29

How the two votes went. The nonresident student agreement sat on the consent agenda and the MTSBA ballot was a standalone vote. As of July 29, neither outcome was public. Minutes are not posted to a standing archive. Draft minutes get approved as a consent item at a later meeting and are linked from that meeting's packet. So Monday's minutes will most likely surface with the August 17 packet.

What the $16,000 covers. The packet listed a fiscal impact of $16,000 per year against the High School General Fund and did not itemize it.

Which vendor. The draft did not name one. The app has since been reported as The Commons; see the update at the top.

What happens to students who can't or won't install it. The draft's answer is to leave the phone at home or in the school office. Open cases: students with IEP or 504 accommodations, kids running continuous glucose monitors or other medical apps on their phones, and families who decline on privacy grounds. The version adopted August 17 lets a student possess or use a phone in a case of medical necessity or emergency, with advance authorization from the principal.

When the second reading is. The packet says the policy will return "as a singular action consent item on a future board agenda" without naming a date. It came back on August 17, and the board adopted it.

Anything about the budget. The preliminary FY27 budget discussion was item 5.2. As of July 29, no figures, enrollment assumptions, or mill or valuation references from Monday were public. Final adoption is on the August 17 agenda, with a statutory deadline of August 25.

If you want a say

The two-reading rule is why timing matters. A policy gets discussed at one meeting and adopted at another, and the adoption usually rides the consent agenda: one vote, unless a trustee asks to pull the item out. The window where public input changes anything is the gap between those two meetings. For this policy, that gap closed on August 17.

Trustees take written comment at trustees@bsd7.org. Meetings are at 5:45 PM in the Willson School board room (404 W Main St, room 217A). Upcoming agendas are on the district's board meeting agendas page, and the calendar tool has the year's board meetings.

The meeting video is posted, linked from the district's board meeting agendas page.

Sources: the July 27 agenda packet, the draft of Policy 3630 linked from it, and the district's board meeting agendas page. Policy draft text verified July 29, 2026; adopted text checked September 25, 2026.

I'm a Bozeman parent writing independently, not affiliated with BSD7. I ran for school board in 2026 and I'm running again in 2027. If I've gotten something wrong, tell me and I'll fix it; corrections: patrick@patrickzimny.com.