Abby El adds hours for P-T conferences
By Kevin O’Brien
To accommodate parents who work second-shift jobs, Abbotsford Elementary will start holding parent-teacher conferences earlier in the afternoon next semester.
At its monthly meeting on Monday night, the school board approved a change to the 2024-2025 calendar that will allow parents and teachers to meet in the afternoons and evenings from 1 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 20. Students will be released from class early, but superintendent Ryan Bargender said teacher’s aides and possibly some high school students will be available to supervise them until they go home for the day.
“We can provide after-school program care for those kids who don’t walk home or their parents don’t come pick them up,” he said. “So, they can still ride the bus home or stay until they can be picked up.”
Bargender said the idea came out of ongoing discussions with parents who recently arrived in the district, and both building principals talked it over with their staff. Under state statute, the elementary requires fewer classroom hours than the middle and high schools, so Bargender said there is some wiggle room.
“We do have the time available to do this, so we thought it would be a good time to pilot it and see how it goes,” he said.
Parent-teacher conferences at the middle/high school will be held from 4 to 8 p.m as normal.
In a related matter, the board approved the 2025-2026 district calendar, which rolls all of the dates forward into the next year. The board also approved Saturday, May 16, for the 2026 graduation date.
Other business
■ ■ The board approved the hiring of Cade Faber as a volunteer boys basketball coach, Isabella Aguilera as a volunteer girls basketball coach, and Alex Sundermeyer as a volunteer wrestling coach. During the athletic director’s report, board member Eric Brodhagen urged district officials to continue looking for a separate coach to cover girls JV basketball,
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rather than leaving both varsity and JV to the same head coach.
“It’s something we need,” he said.
■ ■ The board accepted a $1,975 donation from the Christensen Foundation for signage at the school trail/forest, and $3,000 from the Adler Clark Electric Community Foundation for Falcon Food Nest.
■ ■ During his monthly report, Bargender said a bid walk-through for the referendum project has been set for Dec. 23, with a bid opening to follow in Eau Claire on Jan. 8. The board’s finance committee will then meet on Jan. 15 at 2:30 p.m. to review the bids and make a recommendation to the full board.
■ ■ Middle/high school principal Melissa Pilgrim said students have done really well in meeting behavior expectations this semester, so they are being rewarded with a field trip to see a movie in Medford on Friday.
“I would like to celebrate with them, and that’s a good way to end the semester as well,” she said.
■ ■ Elementary principal Abbey Frischmann said teachers are almost done with new literacy training required under Act 20 and will be taking a 60-question exam this week.
“It has been a pretty intense training for our teachers,” she said. “I’m super proud of them.”
After the winter break, students will take a second round of tests, and those who score below the 20th percentile will be required to go through diagnostic assessments and be put on a personal reading plan written by teachers.
