This is the first year Minga has been implemented at South Hills. According to Minga, it is designed to be a campus management platform for school safety and engagement and South Hills mainly uses it for bathroom and hall passes. Staff members and students shared their thoughts about Minga and if it’s achieving its goal.
The Dean of Students, Secoral Yanez shared that SHHS decided to use Minga this year after seeing its success at other schools around the area. She and the administration team saw the effectiveness in helping schools streamline processes with checking into events and managing activities such as lunch detentions, college workshops, and Homecoming.
“Our goal in adopting Minga is to address some challenges we’ve faced, such as reducing tardiness and ensuring students are where they should be during class time,” Yanez said.
Lyla Heredia (9) stated that Wi-Fi is a huge part of using Minga and without it Minga won’t function properly.
“I do not think it’s working properly, because there’s no good Wi-Fi here, so by the time the request loads, you don’t have to go to the restroom. Especially if it’s an emergency,” Heredia said.
Mattew Arvizu (12) shared that he doesn’t really use Minga, and he says it’s a lot of work for students to create or get a hall pass.
“It’s just a lot of work, just for someone to use the restroom, when instead someone could just raise their hand and go,” Arvizu said.
Math teacher Julia Urbanski stated that Minga is helping students become more responsible with their actions. Although it is good to teach the students accountability, the teachers may have had some issues approving the hall passes.
“Its goal is intended to make accountability and create more responsibility for the students, when they have to actually go in and set a time and seek out the approval,” Urbanski said. “But it’s a little bit hard, because I have to have something right next to me to be able to approve it, or else I have to walk across the room.”
Yanez and the admin team believe that Minga has been working well. Although it may take some time to get used to, overall Minga has done the job it’s intended for.
“We believe Minga is working well, though it will take some time to be fully integrated into all of our routines,” Yanez said. “However, as with any new system, we expect a learning curve, but we’re confident it will help reduce tardiness and keep students in class when they should be.”
