As students and teachers returned to school this year, they noticed a lot of change; new teachers, new administrators, and new rules have altered routines on The Hill. A new cell phone and updated dress code have occurred, but the policy that caused the most uproar amongst students and staff is the implementation of the new electronic hall pass, eHallPass.
Leaving behind the paper passes, teachers now fill out E-hall passes for students. With E-hall passes, all the student does is simply log in on their device and fill out what classroom they are leaving from to which bathroom station they are heading to. If the teacher approves the pass, the student is able to head out, and the pass keeps count of how long they have been out for. After a while, if the student is not back within ten minutes, their pass will get flagged and change colors from green to yellow. Due to this change, there have been some mixed reactions from students and teachers on whether they like this new system, or if paper passes should be brought back.
Assistant principal Renee Green, is a new administrator this year at Clover Hill. She has been working as an administrator for about six years starting in 2017, previously teaching for some time as well.
“The E-hall policy is really about accountability,” Green said. “Making sure that they come back in a timely manner, and just knowing how many passes are being issued for what reasons and for how long.”
She also brings up that she wants students to remain in class and get as much instructional time as possible. So far, she has begun looking into the data from E-hall passes and seeing if there are any particular students that are getting passes more often than others, or if they are spending more time in the hallways.
Student Hadasha Verduzco shared her thoughts on this recent change. “It is both an inconvenience to students and teachers, it is disruptive to the teachers that are trying to teach,” Hadasha said. “I feel like it is putting less trust in students and making them feel like they are not trusted.”
Sophomore Christen Sims also wanted to add that “teachers are forgetting to deactivate passes after students come back in class”.
This could cause issues with students and teachers, considering that if a student were to request another pass it would not be accepted since there is a previous pass that is still active.
For a student, there is no way to deactivate it unless the teacher they requested the pass from inactivates it themselves.
Teachers and staff have expressed that the new system takes time to warm up to, but they see the benefits of sticking with it in the long term.
