Beatrice Public Schools seeks higher secondary conference attendance with ‘office hours’ blocks

Board members and district administrators discussed modest schedule changes for middle- and high-school parent-teacher conferences aimed at increasing family contact during spring conferences.

Administrators said the district will keep elementary and preschool conferences as scheduled because those levels see roughly 95% attendance. The proposed change for secondary schools reserves the first portion of two scheduled conference nights for traditional conferences (4:30–8:30 on night one; 4:30–6:30 on night two) and converts the last two hours of the second night to "office hours," during which teachers will prioritize outreach to families they did not reach during the main conference period.

District staff presented attendance data to justify the change: middle school spring conference attendance was presented at about 47–48%, and high school attendance for the district’s second conference night has historically been in the low teens (about 11–12%), according to the presentation. Board members and administrators said the office-hours block is designed to create a dedicated, proactive time for teachers to place phone calls, send emails, or offer brief drop-in meetings when families are available.

"So what you have in front of you is just a very high level bird's eye view of what we're looking at," said Mr. Hakey (staff member), who outlined the proposed schedule and the rationale for preserving elementary scheduling because of its high turnout. He added that teachers would be given metrics and priorities for outreach — for example, students who earned a D or F in the first semester would be prioritized for contact.

Mr. Boyd (staff member) said the second night at the high school has been particularly low and that staff want to be more productive in contacting parents, noting the difficulty of matching teacher and family schedules when students have multiple teachers. He said incentives used for some families (for example, house points or small classroom incentives) have helped increase attendance in pilot efforts.

Board members suggested practical additions such as offering a Zoom-only sign-up during office hours so families who cannot attend in person could schedule a link-based meeting. Administrators said they already have discussed how to use Google Calendar or similar tools to allow families to self-schedule Zoom slots during that office-hours window.

Administrators told the board they will meet in a working session the following day to settle operational details, build the outreach priorities and metrics, and return with any needed clarifications. No formal board vote on the conference schedule change was recorded at the meeting; the item remained at the discussion/direction stage.

The district emphasized the change is intended to be incremental, not a wholesale overhaul: "It's not a huge change. It's pretty minor, but if we're seeing some positive things from it, then we can grow from that," Mr. Hakey said.

Board members and staff said they will monitor whether the office-hours block increases family contacts and report findings at a future meeting.