When Buford High students miss school and the opportunity to make up missing assignments, they get placed into a program called MASH: Missing Assignment Study Hall. “It started four years ago,” says Joe Watson, “during flex time”. Watson and Ashley Fairfax are the two staff members at BHS who oversee the students during MASH.
In the 21-22 school year, staff at Buford High School knew something different had to be done about missing assignments. Principal Michael Belk says MASH was the first school-wide late policy. “Before MASH, each teacher or department had their own late work policy. MASH helped tremendously to be able to hold students accountable to one expectation,” Belk said. “Although it is not a perfect process, our ability to hold students accountable to complete the work that we say is important was fulfilled through MASH.”
Today, MASH is run through a program called Flex Time Manager. However, the process hasn’t always been simple. Joe Watson explains what it was like in the beginning. “We built the plane as we were flying it,’’ He was aware of where students were supposed to be, but he couldn’t confirm if they were there unless he physically checked. On top of that, students had to hold on to physical slips and staff had spreadsheets to keep track of.
Flex Time Manager helped remove the tedious and unnecessary steps that MASH had. Now, staff at BHS can confirm attendance using the program. “It’s been astronomically more efficient,” Watson says. “Because now Mrs. Fairfax can take attendance right then, and we know if they’re with us or supposed to be with a teacher”.
Flex Time Manager hasn’t just helped with MASH, either. Ashley Fairfax, who oversees attendance for MASH, says Flex Time Manager has helped teachers, too. “It hasn’t just been for us. It’s helped teachers who need to pull students who have missing assignments or maybe students who need more one-on-one time.” She explains that’s why she’s always pushing students to check their Flex Time Manager, so they can know where they’re going and if they need that one-on-one time.
MASH has even been a topic that other schools have come to BHS to discuss, according to Watson. “We’ve had several school districts want to come down and talk with us about how we do things,” Watson says, “because it’s working.” Watson states that while it may not be called MASH, every school in the district has the program in some other form and that a few districts have come to BHS to develop a program based on how it’s implemented here.
Overall, MASH has been a positive addition to BHS, even more so with the help of Flex Time Manager. Watson, Fairfax, and Belk all believe the program is here to stay. “It’s basically routine now,” Fairfax says, “it’s part of school.” Belk believes that MASH has been one step toward continuous improvement for students and staff at BHS. “I look forward to seeing what comes next!”.