Two School District regions altering parent conferences

Terry Webster

Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 | 10:27 a.m.

Two of the Clark County School District's five regions will not be offering parent-teacher conferences during regular instructional hours this year.

Marsha Irvin, northeast regional superintendent and Edward Goldman, southeast regional superintendent both said Thursday they have eliminated days set aside for parent-teacher conferences, breaking a longstanding district tradition.

Typically, the conferences consume 2 to 2 1/2 days of instructional time during a one-week period in November, officials said.

But parent-teacher conferences will still be held. Parents in those regions will have to contact their children's teachers to set up a time.

Goldman said about 10 people called his office and said the new way of scheduling parent-teacher conferences is more convenient.

Scheduling appointments individually will allow more time for parents and teachers to meet, he said. When the conferences were done en masse, they lasted only five to 10 minutes.

Teachers are being asked to communicate with parents through weekly progress reports, Goldman added. He also said parents are being encouraged to set up appointments with their child's teacher.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia said regional chiefs can decide how to handle the conferences for their regions.

The conferences during regular instruction time were eliminated, both superintendents said, because five days will be devoted to staff development this year.

They didn't want to lose any more instructional time this year, Irvin and Goldman said.

Regional superintendents in other three regions -- northwest, southwest and east central -- said they plan to keep the traditional way of scheduling the conferences.

During Thursday's School Board meeting, questions were raised on how Edison Schools will handle parent-teacher conferences. The district has contracted with Edison, a public school management firm, to oversee seven schools here.

Augie Orci, deputy superintendent for instruction, said Edison staff meets with parents and has them sign a written agreement of expectations for the school, the child and parents.

Board member Shirley Barber said she is concerned that the new process may be too intimidating for some parents.

Board member Ruth Johnson said having parents call for conferences breaks a long tradition, and she hoped that parents were fully aware of new procedures.

"We're going to be watching it to see how it goes," Garcia said.