Student conferences: a way teachers and parents can have communication to discuss a student’s progress in school. Student conferences are currently not done at CKHS, while other schools in the school district such as Klahowya Secondary School and Olympic High School have them. There has been a push for CKHS to start having student conferences like the rest of the district, but teachers and students have generally been quite adamant towards the subject.

CKHS has not had student conferences for many years. Student counselor Scott McMinds has worked at CKHS for nine years. He said, “I was previously employed at Klahowya and we did have conferences there, as well as at Ridgetop. I’ve been at three schools in the district, and CK was the only one without conferences. Conference time for seniors that are already at the end of their education track for high school had a lot of issues that could be considered a little bit too late. The parents and students that came were the ones that already had a good handle on things and it wasn’t really needed for them. The students and parents that needed help were the ones who usually didn’t show up. I didn’t find that they were very practical or useful.”

McMinds said, “I don’t think that they should be required. I think that we have some forms of conferences in the form of staffings and SST. SST is the student success team, staffing and SST models go hand in hand when students are struggling. Teachers work together and discuss how to help students.” Staffings and SSTs cover roughly the same topics, but staffings are generally prompted by a parent, while SSTs are initiated by teachers. McMinds believes most teachers don’t want conferences saying, “I think that teachers value their educational time and feel that losing time for preparation for conferences is not beneficial overall for the student body. They would prefer to have the time for student directed time and teacher directed time.”

Senior Maggin Corey said, “I truly think it is a waste of time [student conferences]. I think it’s just like furlough days. It messes with the entire school schedule. It splits the days apart, it is just strange to me.” Furlough days are mandatory leaves of absence ordered by employers, which were used previously in the district to cut costs, but would result in the school schedules becoming offset. Corey said, “Some kids may not like student conferences, because their parents either don’t care at all or care too much. They may go and complain to the teacher about their student doing bad, as if it is the teacher’s fault.” She said, “Some parents just come off as too pushy to me. They act like they need to know absolutely everything, and it’s too much stress on some students.”

Senior Nathaniel Johnson doesn’t want his parents having that sort of communication with his teachers, “because they’re already in my business enough as it is, I don’t want them to have a direct line. Then my parents are managing my work for me, it’s like I lose all control over my academic career.” When student conferences come around, he said, “we lose all control over our life.” Student conferences are infamous for always being scheduled at the worst of times. Such as right before a break.

Senior Kaleb Foss finds student conferences to be a nuisance more than anything. “I think they’re a waste of time. Parents don’t have time to take off work, we have six different teachers, so one teacher can’t speak for all of them. It’s an inconvenience and it inhibits homework time.” Foss said, “When I used to have conferences, my mother would opt out of them due to the inconvenience. My mother doesn’t want to have that sort of communication with my teachers. It’s not up to me.”

On the contrary, Mrs. Ferate does not find the idea of having student conferences to be all that bad. She said, “I think it’s a great idea if we do the arena style conferences, where they set up tables, they don’t go around rooms. They set up tables in the gyms, and the parents can go around the arena and talk to the teachers.” This would be a possible solution to making it easier for parents to actually meet up with all of their student’s teachers. Ferate said we don’t offer student conferences here at CKHS because “they didn’t get enough support from the staff.”