As students learn to adapt to the new course of action surrounding hall passes, phone usage, and tardy rules, staff and students have had to make adjustments for the new school year.
Minga, a new online hall pass application, the Bell to Bell No Cell act and a harsher tardy policy are all adjustments kids in school have to adapt to. School administrators are always looking for new solutions to challenges and problems that arise during the school year; these are just a few of the responses to issues in the building. So far, reactions to these changes are all over the place; however, many teachers and students have high expectations coming into the year.
“I like [the changes] as long as everybody is consistent, because that’s the big thing,” said Ian Emery, English teacher.
As it normally goes for any decision made by school administrators and districts, the response to these changes has been mixed. The recent phone ban has caused significant discomfort for some students. Students have become accustomed to having consistent access to their personal devices, but this year, their ability to use phones is heavily limited. According to the Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the ban was passed in attempts to benefit the students and their mental health.
As the year goes on, many teachers are hopeful to see positive effects and have already commented on the heightened engagement from students.
“Students are interacting with their teachers a thousand percent more,” said Tony Roller, U.S. history and civics teacher.
Although there has been a fairly positive response from teachers to the recent phone ban, that’s just one of the latest changes to RHS and their policy. Minga, a campus management system for hall passes and tardies, is another new implementation in classrooms this year. Previously, most teachers at RHS had personal physical hall passes in their classrooms that they would let students borrow when they needed to exit class. Now, all teachers are required to have their students use a digital hall pass on the Minga platform through a school-issued class Chromebook. Many at RHS actually prefer this and have been commenting fondly of this new practice. Teachers in the building have reported previous struggles with physical passes as they dealt with damage and misplacement..
“We’ve had one of ours end up in the toilet one time,” Emery said. “We’re glad to just have [Minga] and not have to worry about our nicely painted hall pass being pulled out of a toilet.”
Besides Minga, another big change made recently was to the school’s tardy discipline. Teachers are required to be stricter on late students and to keep firm track of how many tardies a student has. According to the school’s handbook policies, any student who arrives at the building late has to check into the front office prior to continuing to class. Arriving 15 minutes late or more will result in an absence. If students end up being marked tardy five times, they will be given an office referral. Tardies used to be counted per class; now they are counted between all classes. Stricter disciplinary action in response to tardies is something new that RHS will see this year.
Students at RHS have noticed the lack of students filling the halls after bells and during Mountie Time that was a normality previously.
“I think it does feel drastically different from last year,” said Cole Franz, 11. “Just the vibe of not letting students get out of class or roaming around during Mountie time and stuff like that.”
Another new addition to the environment at RHS is StudentSquare and ParentSquare. Most of the RHS community were previously familiar with platforms like Remind, GroupMe, or just regular emails and messages. This was a quick and swift change in the way families and RHS staff communicate with each other. It is now mandatory for teachers and students to use these platforms to communicate with one another and pass along information, such as event dates, schedule changes, important announcements, and any other miscellaneous information involving school and the students.
Although this streamlined communication has many benefits, some parents, students, and teachers are not familiar with this new platform yet. .
“ParentSquare is a different issue. I do not know how to use that very well,” said Roller. “I researched just a little bit, but it’s obviously something I need help with.”
Recent changes have been implemented for Mountie Time, a thirty minute period in between second and third hour classes Monday through Wednesday. Recently, the necessary action needed to pull a student during this time has become more complicated. Teachers now need to request students a week in advance and receive approval from administration before a student can travel during Mountie Time. Teachers must submit a request by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for travel in the upcoming week.
“It definitely does affect day-to-day life,” said Franz.
