A New Principal Leads Montgomery County High to a Significant Decrease in Tardies and Hallway Hours
Discover how Montgomery County High, led by Principal Holly Lawson, said goodbye to paper-based methods of recording tardies and hall passes — skyrocketing student punctuality and accountability.
About Montgomery County High School
Students
1,350+
Grades
9-12
The Challenge
Inefficient Management of Student Movement and Battles With Chronic Tardiness
Montgomery’s paper-based hall pass system was inefficient, making it difficult to manage and monitor student movement. The school had a paper-based system where students would sign in and out of classes. Not only did this create admin headaches, but school staff struggled with students meeting up in bathrooms and constantly being late to class, which affected the learning environment and raised concerns from the district and central office.
Staff perception was that students were always late and spending too much time in the hallways, but this observation was very anecdotal and difficult to prove without clear-cut data. Holly and her team wanted to be able to objectively monitor and make informed decisions about tardiness and student movement on campus—transitioning to a digital solution was essential to achieve this goal.
KEY PROBLEM AREAS:
“
We noticed that there were a lot of kids in the hallway, a lot of kids meeting up in the bathrooms, and a lot of kids tardy to class. We also still used printed IDs and were looking for a better solution for that too.
But it was really the hall pass piece—we needed a way to monitor things so that we could make informed decisions about kids being in the hallways. We wanted to see if there were really too many kids in the hallway at a given time.”
The Solution
Implementing Minga to Revolutionize Hallways & Tardy Management
Principal Lawson prioritized finding an efficient digital hall pass system and after a thorough search, she realized how beneficial a whole Campus Management Platform would be. Not only did Minga offer her the hall pass solution she desperately needed, it promised to provide even better monitoring of student movement with a robust check in and check out system. In addition, digital IDs guaranteed quick identification of students, greatly enhancing security on campus.
After a successful launch with digital hall passes, the next challenge Montgomery staff decided to tackle was tardiness. They ditched their old, manual process of recording tardies, and currently leverage Minga’s automation tools to instantly notify administrators when a student accrues three tardies, streamlining enforcement of the tardy policy. This automation has relieved teachers of the manual task of tracking tardies, allowing them to focus more on teaching.
What Minga Offered:
“
Minga definitely helped with monitoring tardies, all within the space of two or so months. The first day we launched this new policy in January, we had over 100 tardies at the end of the day. And by March or April, we only had about 6 tardies per day. It’s been really beneficial for us.”
The Outcomes
Remarkable Reduction in Tardiness and Improved School Efficiency
Improved Monitoring of Student Movement
The digital hall pass system allows the school to quickly identify and locate students—especially in emergency situations.
Significant Decrease in Tardiness
The school achieved a dramatic reduction in daily tardies, from around 180-200 at the start of the year to approximately 10-20 per day, marking a significant improvement in punctuality.
Teachers Are No Longer “The Bad Guy”
Teachers can now enforce tardy and hall pass policies with ease on the app. This has helped to hold students accountable while reducing classroom tensions.
Reduced Admin Burden on Teachers
Minga handles the recording and enforcement of tardies, allowing teachers to focus more on their primary purpose, teaching.
Positive School Culture
Addressing tardiness through Minga fostered a positive school culture by establishing clear expectations and accountability, supporting both teachers and students.
Data-Driven Decisions
Minga’s comprehensive data tracking facilitated informed decision-making regarding student movement and behavior, leading to targeted interventions.
“
Anything that helps teachers is obviously beneficial, and Minga has helped us. The data helps us physically see who’s signed out or if there’s more than one person out of the room. It’s helped teachers just be teachers and take something off their plate that they don’t need to keep track of themselves anymore.”
Key Results:
17% average monthly decrease
in hallway hours (semester 1)
13% average monthly decrease
in hallway hours (semester 2)
24 extra hours
of classroom time over 1 year
3% average monthly decrease
in tardies, over 1 semester
416 automated referrals
for repeat tardiness, saving a ton of teacher time
713 check ins
for intervention classes and programs
Are You Ready to Drastically Reduce Tardiness and Hallway Hours at Your School?
Run your school, the smarter way, like Montgomery County High! Schedule a 30-minute demo and discover firsthand how our Campus Management Platform can be tailored to meet your school’s unique needs.