Hillcrest Academy in Kalona is taking on a new mental health initiative this year, no phones at school. The goal of this initiative aims to promote mindfulness, reduce distractions, and encourage meaningful connections among their students. They believe that by creating a personal device free space, their students can better focus on their studies, engage in healthy conversations, and develop essential life skills around phones and access to social media. This is becoming something that a lot of school districts are considering and they are inspired about potentially being the first school to be doing this for their school community in southeast Iowa. You can find more information about the initiative with the link with this news story at KCIIRadio.com.