With the new school year underway, students and staff alike are facing major district policy changes. Dress code rules, parking privileges, and student cell phone usage have all seen varying degrees of alteration, but the implementation of Minga – a classroom management software intended as a one-stop shop for student affairs – has sparked the most scrutiny and debate among students. To many, the question still remains: Why Minga?

“The primary reason for Minga is organizing Bulldog Block,” Dean of Students Jason Morris said. “In the past years, we just had students kind of free-roaming the school.

During Bulldog Block, students can sign out of their Bulldog Block homeroom and go to other spaces in CHS, called Minga Flextime This ensures that students are getting the required 1098 hours of educational time over the entire school year. For example, other teachers for help, music practices, and club meetings. This makes it so that teachers have a better understanding of where their students are going during block time. 

“What if a [student] is really struggling, and [they] need help with math, and then the parents are like, what are they doing for Bulldog block time? Well, they have been to the school store 16 times, instead of going to see Mrs. Hugg for help. Now, we can look at Minga and see if you’re utilizing the time,” CHS principal Amanda Clor said.

Minga offers countless other features within the app, like announcements and group chats. But students are mainly focused on the hall passes, along with the fact that they are time-sensitive; if used correctly, however, they are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible.

“If you’re a minute late because somebody else was in the stall or you’re not feeling well, the goal is not to discipline for that, right?” Morris said. “If you are the same kid coming in and using a pass every day and you’re late every single day, that’s a red flag to us.”

Within the first week of school, students showed some concern regarding the duration of the bathroom passes. Administrators are open to student feedback, already resulting in changes to the system. The goal is to create a program that’s beneficial to both students and staff.  

“We started off [the bathroom pass] at five minutes, and we figured out on the first days of school that really wasn’t enough time, so we adjusted it to eight. Maybe we’ll adjust it to 10 if need be,” Morris said. “But I think change is hard for people. So when you have something new and it’s a change, then there needs to be some adjustments.”

Administrators are hopeful that students will get all questions cleared up and get these new hall passes to the best version possible. Over time, it will become the norm for CHS. Morris is hoping this “norm” will come soon. 

“So just getting everybody comfortable is my biggest fear this year, and once we get there, then I’ll feel pretty good,” Morris said. “But we are only starting school, so I’m not too worried.”