Introduced to Olympic Heights at the start of the 2025-2026 school year, Minga is a digital hall pass and event management software accessible through the student portal. This platform helps students create passes to the bathroom, nurse, media center, or other campus destinations directly from their chromebooks. Minga was implemented throughout the Palm Beach County School District to eliminate the use of paper passes; it also helps administration adequately monitor hallway activities.

Hal Videtto, Olympic Heights Assistant Principal, spoke with The Torch about the new pass protocol. “The intent of Minga is accountability,” Videtto states. “It streamlines the process of holding students accountable and knowing where they are.” This new system effectively reduces classroom interruptions and maximizes instructional time with a silent and quick system that avoids paper passes, which reduces paper waste. Here’s how it works: Students still ask teachers for permission to use the restroom, but instead of the teacher stopping instruction to write on the hall pass, students merely click through a few steps on the Minga portal, and a pass is seamlessly created.  Most importantly, teachers on hall duty can see the name and picture of the student along with the time he has been out from class.  

While Minga was designed to improve safety and monitoring for administrators, some students have expressed mixed feelings about its implementation.  Allysson Navarrete, OH junior, admits that Minga isn’t her favorite thing; however, Navarrete adds, “It’s still very effective when it comes to keeping track of which student is out and for how long.” 

Videtto also commented on Minga’s effectiveness and student opinions. “Teacher and student feedback has been mixed,” Videtto explains. “It’s been working well and effectively, but there’s certainly room for improvement.” He also mentioned that being able to accurately determine whenever a student is out and for how long is an important safety feature for parents, teachers, staff, especially in an emergency situation. “It’s good that we’re able to know where kids are during an [emergency] drill,” shares Videtto.  

Teachers and administration have also had to adjust to the change.  Since school resumed in August, nearly each OH teacher has been assigned to duty posts to monitor the hallways during class time. One responsibility is to check whether or not students have created a pass within the Minga system. Sarah Cummings, an English teacher at Olympic Heights, has been assigned to the student bathrooms during her duty post. “When implemented consistently, I believe that Minga is an extremely effective way to improve school safety and increase student accountability,” Cummings expresses.  

One concern about Minga is that it may violate student privacy; however, according to Minga’s website, it does not track a student’s location or activity on mobile phones.  Furthermore, Minga meets the United States’ federal and state standards for data collection.  They also never share the names or email addresses from users in a school district.

Minga has undoubtedly created effectiveness in timing, monitoring, and safety throughout the halls. While many Lions may see Minga as questionable regarding student privacy and accessibility, overall the app contributes to enhancing structure and safety throughout our school.