New York City public schools are again pushing “virtual” parent-teacher conferences long after the pandemic — infuriating parents who ripped the remote meetings as impersonal and ineffective.
Parent-teacher conferences and curriculum-night events kicked off this week and will continue through September — but at least two parent-advisory groups are already balking and insisting on face-to-face confabs.
“It’s in the best interest of our schools to bring parents back to the building as much as they can,” said Danyela Souza Egorov, a Lower Manhattan mother and vice president of the Community Education Council for District 2, which covers most of Lower Manhattan.
The group passed a resolution last month calling for in-person options to be added to virtual ones.
CEC 3, which covers the Upper West Side, passed the same resolution on Wednesday.
The lack of in-person meetings is “a legacy of COVID — one more way parents are being kept away from our schools,” Egorov told The Post.
Danyela Souza Egorov, a mother and vice president of the Community Education Council for District 2, says “it’s in the best interest of our schools to bring parents back to the building as much as they can.”
Parents across the city said the online meetings are counterproductive and that it’s time schools return to pre-pandemic practices.
“There is a complete disconnect when it’s virtual,” said Angelina Ojeda, a Queens parent of ninth-grade twins at the High School of Applied Communication in Long Island City. “We need to rebuild the face-to-face connections we lost during COVID.”
Parents also see where their tax dollars go when they visit schools, she added.
Queens mom Angelina Ojeda says in-person meetings are important for connecting and seeing where tax dollars go. Courtesy of Angelina OjedaIt took a visit to her girls’ middle school last year to understand a frighteningly steep staircase one daughter was afraid to use, and also call attention to a water bug problem they were telling her about.
The visits also give a chance to see how resources are used and the work created by students.
Last year, teachers tried their best to show third-grade student’s art through a Zoom frame but it was “frustrating,” recalled Allison Weinger, whose twins attend PS 87 on the Upper West Side.
“I was really upset that I was barely able to see any of my kids’ work,” she said. “I should be able to see the work when hearing about their progress.”
This year, PS 87’s curriculum night will include Zoom presentations, according to a notice from the school, and they will not be recorded for families who miss it.
Many parents say Zoom meetings are impersonal and don’t give them a chance to see their kid’s work or classroom settings. fizkes – stock.adobe.comAt PS 118 in Park Slope, curriculum conferences this week entailed one-hour sessions for teachers to present and parents to virtually drop in.
In-person meetings can be requested, but many parents, including Weinger, said they were not made aware of this.
Educators are not required by contract to participate in conferences or back-to-school nights at the school and can participate in afternoon conferences remotely “if their commute allows,” according to the UFT website.
The meetings should also take place during the “contractual workday,” it states.
Teachers are not required to attend in-person conferences after school and can schedule remote ones “if their commute allows,” according to the union. AFP via Getty ImagesThat is unacceptable, parents said.
“It puts the burden on parents and I think parents also try to be careful, they don’t want to be that difficult parent who is the only one requesting it,” said Egorov.
She added that not every family has the technology necessary to meet.
Over 20,000 newly arrived children have enrolled in public schools since the start of the migrant crisis in New York City.
Technology and communication issues hindered many from getting enrollment information, The Post reported.
The DOE and UFT did not respond to requests for comment.
