Parent-Teacher Conference Days Remain Half-Days Despite Appeals

In response to a number of inquiries from Wilton parents asking for conference days to be modified in order to curb instructional time lost due to recent natural disasters, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gary Richards issued a clear answer: No.

In a letter posted on the Edline’s website (also attached to this article as a PDF) Richards said that these conference days are “required by state law [in order] to provide parent-teacher conference opportunities with our students.”

Richards said that making these parent-teacher conference dates full days, which take place Nov. 16-22 and are half-days for students, would “not help us with the restoration of lost days, but rather adds back some instructional time that is lost due to minimum day schedules….Parents have scheduled appointments and our teachers have designed their lesson plans and schedules for those days accordingly” (emphasis his).

Richards portrayed these conference days as “important opportunities” for teachers and parents to meet and “discuss academic and social progress.”

Since restoring these conference days to full days for students would not have helped get Wilton up to the 180-school-days state requirement, it seems that parents simply wanted their students to resume a normal schedule and to make up for lost instructional time.