PT Conference's Attendance Disappoints
Waverly High School recently held its annual Parent-Teacher Conferences which gave the few parents who attended an opportunity to meet with teachers and discuss their children’s education on October 13 and 20.
After the annual conferences, the issue of low attendance worried teachers and administrators yet again.
“I think a lot of times, when a student gets to the high school level, you know, they [parents] aren’t as hovering as much as they were,” assistant principal Brian Daniell said.
Even with the low attendance numbers, most parents that did come had students that were doing well in their classes.
“Of all the parents that showed up, the ones that I talked to had A’s, and I had nothing to really say about ways to improve,” math teacher Cody Gregory said.
Some teachers, however, had the opposite of the usual attendance problems.
“In the four years that I’ve been here, I’ve never had double digits in parents show up on any given night. Last night, I had 27, which is about three times as many as I normally get. Last week I had a total of five” Gregory said.
For other teachers conferences in the double digits is fairly commonplace.
“I had about 19 parents last Tuesday, and the breakdown was about 15 freshman parents and four or five Advanced Placement parents,” history teacher Dan Jensen said.
But even with the small turnout, the WHS staff is at a crossroads on how to fix it.
“On the one hand, you want plenty of people to show up, but if I get 19 or 20, then there’s no way to accommodate them all,” Jensen said.
The administration, on the other hand, has a few ideas for improving the conferences.
“We’ve talked about whether we should have it at a different time in the evening; I think that might help,” Daniell said.
Technology may also factor into the decreased attendance, with staff making use of email and websites more often than ever before.
“I think that we communicate so well through the use of Powerschool and stuff like that. Parents know, and from the discipline standpoint of students struggling academically and even with behavior, we’re communicating up front with parents, so parents don’t have to meet to have a conference to figure out ‘Oh gee, we have some issues,’” Daniell said.
Many teachers utilize multiple digital avenues for communication.
“I have two websites, and I think that does minimize it somewhat; I think technology has probably taken care of some of it,” Jensen said. “I mean, can’t you just send an email at any time?”
Other than a potential change to the timespan of conferences, students and parents shouldn’t expect many changes at the next Parent-Teacher Conference, which takes place next Spring.
