The Office Hours in the Room

The new office-hours system, where sign-ups for the coming week are due Sunday at midnight, has proven incredibly divisive. With the administration’s recent response about changes to office hours going forward, it’s important to understand the history behind why office hours have changed so much in the past few years. To that end, I was able to interview AP of Climate and Culture Steven Mathis to see his perspective on the changes made.

Historically, Moreau’s held a block of Office Hours at the end of every gold day. But its been a running issue trying to keep track of where students are and students not using their Office Hours productively.

Prior to the 2025-2026 school year, Office Hours were held by scanning QR codes in teachers’ rooms. These QR codes would take students to a Google Form where attendance for Office Hours could be marked. This system proved to be really easy for students to use because it offered the most freedom, but it made it hard for teachers and staff because students would either flock to rooms in groups but not sign up, or be unproductive.

Then, in the 2025-2026 school year, the school changed to using Minga, where students would sign up for their office hours by midnight before a day with office hours. This system was easy for students but unfamiliar for teachers, as some teachers were unfamiliar with the system and had issues with applying the new rules and addressing issues with the system. 

Now, in the 2026-2027 school year, the office hours system changed to office hours sign-ups for the week ahead being due Sunday evening. These changes were made to address the sizable portion of students who still didn’t sign up for office hours. However, a common complaint of this system has been the restriction to students’ ability to make last minute changes to their office hours selections because it is due Sunday. This issue was addressed in a recent email from Administration, amending the deadline to be Monday by 10 AM. Additionally, students can email administrators during the week if they need to make a change.

Mr. Mathis shared that the driving force behind the change was that last year’s old system had a large problem of an overwhelming number of students not signing up, reporting that the number of students who didn’t sign up ranged in the 200s. With this many students, staff members like Ms. Alejo and Mr. Sims would be taking time out of their schedules to make sure that everyone’s assigned.

Since implementing the new system, however, the number of students signing up has reached a new low, around only 80 students. Clearly, the changes have had a sizable impact on reducing the amount of work school staff have to take care of by assigning stray students and making sure they’re accounted for.

Additionally, since there are fewer students failing to sign up for office hours, there are now less students receiving detentions because of office hours. However, last month’s technical issues with Minga caused a handful of students to receive automated detention as a consequence.

Addressing detentions as a punishment, Mathis shared, “I am quite open, very open, to hearing other ideas about what are some consequences to consider when you don’t sign up for office hours. I always approach things from a restorative place and I want to make sure that consequences are aligned with the actions.”

Mr. Mathis has talked with several students on how to avoid Office Hours-related detentions. In the future, students can expect to receive a survey in the winter about their thoughts and opinions towards the current system and have the opportunity to have suggestions implemented.

For older students, this change might have been a bit of a struggle to adapt to, but with time the new system has proven more effective. Remember that if students happen to change their minds about what they’ve signed up for, Ms. Alejo and Mr. Mathis can be emailed, ideally 24 hours in advance, to change their assignment.