You can often find Centaurus High Principal Carlyn Carroll hanging out in the student center at lunch, checking out ping pong paddles to a steady stream of students looking to play on the new tables, queuing up movies they can watch on a big screen and helping manage a stack of board games as she chats with students.

What was once a quiet space in the Lafayette school is now packed and loud as students learn to interact without cellphones.

“Students talking to each other, it’s a great sound,” Carroll said.

When the Boulder Valley School District decided last year to ban cellphones during school hours at the high schools, Carroll asked students what would help them give up their phone habit and ease the awkwardness of talking face-to-face.

Students told her they wanted to play.

So she

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