Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School

September 6, 2023

Dear BCAM Families & Students: We welcome you to the start of a wonderful 2023-24 school year! While we will share a bunch of other school-based information, supports and opportunities in the coming weeks, we wanted to notify you of an important policy change we have established to begin the school year to ensure a safe, focused, effective and high quality college and career-preparatory BCAM learning environment.

Beginning immediately on September 7, 2023 which the first day of school, all BCAM students will respectfully and professionally have their phones and/or phone-like devices (Apple watches, games, etc) collected and safely locked and secured by staff upon morning entry each day. These devices will then be provided back to all students at the end of the academic day at 2:40pm, or if a student is permitted to exit the building previous to the end of the day.

· If needed, students may contact family with available phones and outside lines in our offices and professional spaces.

· Conversely, if needed, families may contact their students via our school phone system, via our Kinvolved texting system, or on their student before and after school.

· If students do not follow these established guidelines of collection/storage, they are subject to school disciplinary consequences.

· Finally, 12th Graders who earn the privilege of external lunch are given their phones to exit the building when leaving for lunch. Phones are then collected when they return to the building following their external lunch. (No other grades of students are able to leave for lunch per DOE Safety Department.)

We truly hope our BCAM families and students understand this policy decision and both support and follow these required guidelines. This policy change is in the name of safety, focused teaching and learning success, and effective high quality college and career-preparation for all BCAM students.

If you are wanting to discuss this policy, we welcome you to join us for a Zoom discussion next Wednesday, 9/13 at either 10:30am or at 6:00pm on a Zoom link that our Parent Coordinator Renesha Westbrooks will transmit in the coming days. Or you may contact her at (718)230-5748 or rwestbrooks2@schools.nyc.gov. Thank you as always for your support. Let’s get going on great 2023-24 school year.

Best, Dr. James O’Brien BCAM Principal & the entire BCAM Staff

At Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM), we prepare our students for 21st century academic, creative, and professional success. Through an art, media, and technology-enriched academic curriculum emphasizing community collaboration, we challenge ourselves to think critically and create knowledge in pursuit of personal excellence and meaningful social change.