by Ashley Freund and Mary Hayes

On Tuesday, Oct. 21 and Thursday, Oct 23, Atlantic High School held parent-teacher conferences. Tuesday conference times were from 4:30 pm to 8 pm, and Thursday’s conference times were from 8 am to 8 pm with two one hour breaks. Students received a four-day weekend, having Thursday and Friday off, and teachers only received Friday off due to having conferences all day on Thursday.

At this time, 20 teachers have reported that 73 parents attended their conferences. Each teacher saw a range of 20-80% of parents, and each conference with the parent and teacher were fifteen minutes each. First-year teacher Morgan Staashelm said, “It went super well. It was nice to meet all the parents.”

In order to get more positive results to our conferences, “the parent. student, and teacher should all be present,” said principal Heather McKay. She said that with the students who feel like they need more help in school or could do better, they need to make a “game plan” with their teachers. Students need to find where their strengths are and utilize them so they can reach their full potential and improve in the specific classroom, and others as well.

Whether this year is a success or not is yet to be determined. McKay said, “It’s a case by case, student by student. I would like to see more students attend with the parents.”