Teachers' union urges board not to remove conference day for Silvercrest

Emily Rao, president of the Silver Falls Education Association, told the board that taking away conference time from one or two schools would be unfair and would disrupt parent–teacher collaboration, transportation and events such as the district choir festival.

“Our understanding originally was concerns about Robert Frost as well,” Rao said. She described spring conference days as “a precious precious thing to preserve” for K–5 families and said the association’s recommendation was to “stick with past practice and allow those buildings to work it within their scheduled day” by adding minutes at the end of the day or trimming recess rather than canceling a district conference day for only a subset of schools.

Other teachers who spoke said Silvercrest historically has fewer instructional minutes than other district schools and that making one school lose a conference day would create inequities for families with children at multiple schools. Speakers also noted operational impacts — food service, busing and field trips for music festivals — and asked the district to confirm whether work-from-home directives counted as instructional time in past years.

Why it matters: Teacher conferences are a routine parent–teacher touchpoint; removing conference time at a single school raises equity and operational concerns. The association asked the board to consider less disruptive alternatives and to include teachers in any scheduling decisions.

What’s next: The board tabled the makeup-day decision and asked staff to return with ODE guidance and implementation options by March 9.