Parent-teacher conferences are a perfect time for the parents to meet their child’s teachers and get updated on how they’re performing in school. They are a good way for a parent to keep up to date on their child, however it doesn’t come without its frustrations. Parents used to have to wait in long lines outside the teacher’s classroom in order to meet with them, forcing them to carve out large amounts of time in their busy schedules.

However, the school recently addressed this issue by changing the way parents arranged to meet with the teachers. Parents now had to go onto the website and sign up for times to meet with the teachers, each meeting lasting six minutes. The school also gave the option to teachers to give the parents of a particular student they wanted to see priority scheduling. This resolved the long lines parents had to wait in and instead gave them a definite time they had to meet. Mike Zimmer, the principal of Pleasant Valley High School, said the changes came after the parents’ frustration last year when there were big clustered groups sitting outside classrooms, waiting up to 40 minutes to see one teacher. Zimmer explained that last year was “just a mess.”

This year though, Zimmer said he’s gotten some positive feedback and “teachers were able to see more parents with this schedule than ever before.” Zimmer did address one problem though, saying that six minute slots were too much time for the straight A students since there wasn’t much to talk about, and too little time for students who needed help. Overall, Zimmer was confident that the new system worked better, saying, “after talking with the parents, if I were to not do this again, there would be a mob outside my office.”

Jenny Staver, a parent of two PV students, attended the conferences and was very pleased with how the new system worked. “I didn’t have to stand in line waiting for 45 minutes for teachers. Instead, I got to move right along the line to other teachers. I very much preferred this method.” Another PV parent added, “the scheduling streamlined the experience.” Staver said one flaw of the new system was the limited number of spots available for each teacher, saying, “I don’t think there were enough spots for all of the parents to get in and see the teachers.” Staver also suggested that it would be good to “have conferences over two days.”
It seems like the new conferences format worked very well and there’s a good chance the next conferences will follow the same setup. There might be a few changes to help smooth out the new process, but so far, the scheduled times seem to be a step in the right direction.