Parent-teacher conferences were hosted at EHS February 21-23. 

   The conferences are a way for teachers to interact with students’ parents, reflect on different aspects of their teaching, and develop plans to help the students succeed. 

   “Parent-teacher conferences allow for students, parents, and teachers to make a connection with each other to identify successes and areas of growth for the students we serve,” Dathan Fischer (head principal) said. 

   “[Parent-teacher conferences] give parents/guardians an opportunity after school hours to meet with teachers to get an in-depth look at how their student is performing academically, socially, emotionally in their particular class,” Terry Taylor (guidance counselor) said. 

   Conferences are essential to attend as there is a lot that can be acquired by showing up. This year the turnout was lower than was hoped.

    “Over the past years, our student/parent attendance at parent-teacher conferences has declined.  We are always looking for new ideas to engage parents about their student to help increase our attendance,” Fischer said.

    “Every parent/guardian needs to attend conferences.  So much information can be obtained by attending,” Taylor said. 

   With the decline in attendance, staff is always looking for ways to improve in order to encourage more involvement. 

   “[I believe we should] make it mandatory that parents/guardians attend/communicate with teachers somehow.  So many parents aren’t involved/supportive of schools/teachers and only get one side of the story when they come to school for something.  Many parents don’t have any idea how their student is performing in school,” Taylor said.

   “It might be a good idea for us to go back to scheduling parents to attend at a certain time instead of letting them pick when it is convenient for them.  We have done this in the past, but it didn’t make a huge difference.  However, we might need to consider this idea again,” Fischer said.