Parent-Teacher Conferences

The last formal Parent/Teacher Conferences for the school year are taking place this week.    The district regards this as a very important time to have face-to-face discussions regarding students.  Most of the 8 hours of conference time slots take place after 6:00 p.m. to accommodate parent work schedules.  Appointments are made with teachers at the elementary and typically 90% of parents attend.  This is an admirable number and is assisted by the 11 translators as well as supporting calls to parents.  The middle school encourages parents to bring their children to the conferences and has practiced a format in which students actively participate in the discussion.  The high school conferences are typically less attended by parents and logistically are more difficult to arrange.  Most high school teachers will work with well over 100 children and/or instruct multiple classes.  Parents arrive in the commons area and then wait for the teacher of their choice to have an available time slot.  

Although I believe there is no substitution for the value of a personal meeting, the school continues to make efforts to communicate with parents in multiple ways.  The first is inviting parents to arrange for any meeting of a teacher or administrator of their choice.  Technology has proven to be a great asset for school and parent relationships.  Parents can review their student’s grades, lunch accounts, etc. anytime of day or night by accessing the school website, creteschools.com. Logging on to the school management system, Infinite Campus will provide an abundance of information.  Please contact the school if you are experiencing any technical difficulty.  All of our teachers are very adept with using email and many parents take advantage of this common process.  Creteschools.com is literally accessed thousands of times each month and has proven to be a valuable communication tool.  Parents can also register on this same site for a free service called; School Beacon.  Registering for this communication system will allow emails, texts and voice mail to be sent to the user and therefore notifying them of school closings, emergencies or other activities of note.

The good old fashion note home or to school as well as telephone calls are still very acceptable and encouraged.  The intent is to promote communication between home and school.  Please feel to contact myself or any other educator in our district if we can be of assistance: kylem@creteschools.org or 826-5855.