FPS Eliminates High Schools Parent Teacher Conferences For Spring

By Gordon HopkinsFairbury Public Schools Board of Education approved a change to this spring’s parent/teacher conferences during a meeting on Monday, February 9, 2026, effectively eliminating them for high school. Instead, teachers will contact parents directly if needed. The change is part of a pilot for this school year.This impacts the spring conference only. A full conference including high school is anticipated for the fall.On Thursday, March 12, 2026, elementary conferences will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. This will be a no-student day for elementary students. High school students will attend school as usual from 8:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. that day. High school staff will reach out directly to parents of students who are currently failing or in need of additional academic support. There will be no walk-in conferences at the high school. According to an email from Superintendent Dr. Devin Embray, “This adjustment reflects feedback from staff and parents and is intended to make conference time more purposeful at each level. At the elementary level, conferences continue to provide an important opportunity for all families to meet with teachers. At the high school level, the focus will be on connecting directly with families when there are specific academic concerns, allowing time and attention to be directed where it is most needed. As always, parents at any level can reach out directly via email to their students’ teacher at any time.”At the meeting, Central Elementary Principal Kim Roberts discussed how the feedback that led to the decision was obtained.“It started in the fall. So, obviously we had a new look to parent teacher conferences being just on one night instead of two nights. And so, then we conducted a study group, is what I would call it,” said Roberts. “Some administrators, parents, community members, teachers, trying to get a little bit of a range from every building. We also sent out some surveys, both the parent survey and staff survey.”Roberts said, “We started with just looking at the data and information we got, and then started writing up different types of proposals and kind of narrowed it down.”According to Roberts, part of the reason behind changing the high school conference was attendance.“In the elementary world,” said Roberts. “We always get usually more like 80 percent or above attendance rate. But in high school, you’re looking at 20 percent or less. And so, trying to make sure that we’re using teachers time wisely, but also reaching out and getting to those parents that we need to get to.”

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