Central launched a new electronic bathroom pass in SOAR Homeroom on Tuesday, Aug. 20. Students access the pass on their Chromebooks through Minga.
After a pilot at Naperville North, District 203 decided to roll out the program across all junior high and high schools.
Students can sign into Minga with their school account to create an electronic bathroom pass and start a five minute timer. Students are still required to get teacher approval before creating the pass.
“We put five minutes on [but] we could move it to six or seven and make the limits high,” Dean of Students Mike Stock said. “Nothing is going to change for most of our students.”
Stock compares the electronic update of our passes to students scanning their ID’s when walking into the school each morning.
“We used to not scan students in,” Stock said. “Now we [scan student IDs] because we have technology, it helps us keep inner records and know when kids are in and out of the building.”
Teachers were introduced to Minga during an institute day a few days before school started.
“I think all of us [teachers] are on board for wanting to make sure students are in the class, and to make sure that they’re present and learning,” social studies teacher Rochelle Wilder said.
Teachers will continue to have primary control over whether a student is allowed to use the restroom.
“Teachers can override it and let you go because of an emergency, and use their good judgment,” Stock said. “So they’re really doing the same thing they’ve done in the past.”
Students don’t need to use Minga when going to the nurse, student services or the library. For students with medical conditions or other accommodations, this pass will not change their access to the bathroom.
“If a student wants to go to the nurse or student services, they [teachers] still write a green pass,” Stock said. “We put in place the very beginning level of [Minga], just the washroom pass.”
