It’s that time of year again; the time of year that students, parents and teachers all mark on their calendars at the beginning of the year. The time has come for yet another round of parent teacher conferences.

Parent teacher conferences happen twice a year; once at the beginning of each semester. Most students, parents and teachers look forward to them for varying reasons.

For students, conferences bring a long weekend and thus a nice break from classes and studying, especially in second semester when conferences line up with Presidents’ Day and students get the following Monday off as well.

“I like them because we get off school and I like to hear what positive things my teachers say about me,” sophomore Rylee Wilson said.

For parents, conferences are a nice time to figure out what their students aren’t telling them about their classes.

For teachers, parent teacher conferences are a time to meet and share information with the parents.

“[The purpose is] to increase communication between parents and what their children are learning and how they’re doing,” Principal Dustin Mortenson said. “It increases communication with teachers and connects all three dots.”

Conferences are made as practical as possible so that more parents are able to come. Conferences are on Wednesday night from 3:30-8 p.m. and Thursday from 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Translators are available for parents who would need them.

“We have people who can translate, whether it’s a Spanish teacher or we have a few adults, like Officer Leiker or Mrs. McGeary, who are fluent in Spanish that can translate,” Mortenson said.

In addition to being practical, conferences are also beneficial.

“It’s fun to share the positive stories that happen in the classroom with parents, because they don’t always get to see what’s going on in here,” said social studies teacher Mike Murphy. “It’s hard sometimes for parents to get students to share the potential struggles they are having in some classes and they get an inside scoop on how to better understand and help their student. Or if it’s great news it’s just a reinforcement of how wonderful most of our students are.”

Despite the benefits, conferences do have some drawbacks for teachers.

“It’s a long day, and there is a lot of down time in the middle,” math teacher Katie Meserko said.

Murphy agreed that the long day was a drawback and proposed a change.

“Rather than Thursday being all day conferences, they could just be Wednesday and Thursday evening,” Murphy said. “Yes, it’s busy but it’s just two evenings and there is still school, so students wouldn’t lose a day of school.”

Meserko proposed another option of having scheduled conferences to eliminate excess downtime.

“Especially in the spring, that [the downtime] could be shortened because you already met them [the parents] once in the fall,” said Meserko.