Teachers, students say NH phone ban rollout is going smoothly

This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative .

Over the first two weeks of the school year, Concord High School English teacher Heather Ouellette-Cygan spotted just four students’ phones.

John Stark Regional High School music teacher Dan Williams reported a single sighting.

And besides the first day of school, when two students reflexively pulled out their devices at the mere mention of the word “phone,” Merrimack Valley High School social studies teacher Robert Montgomery didn’t lay eyes on a single device.

As recently as last June, phones were as central a feature of most New Hampshire high schools as pencils and paper. Now, teachers and students said in interviews, a new stat