1,250: the number of enrolled students at North High School, grades nine through 12.

On September 21, North High School held an open house. The number of parent participation was exceedingly low, altogether only 12 percent of families attended – 40 freshman families, 21 sophomore families, 20 junior families, and 84 senior families who participated, according to statistics given by administration.

Principal Michael Vukovich, Vice Principal Dr. Cheryl Modlin, and English Teacher Cheyenne Landrith spoke on their thoughts about the situation.

“Here at North Open House is an experience for parents to learn about how their student is doing. Even those who are struggling have something good. So we really need to highlight those types of things, and then talk about how we can improve together,” Principal Vukovich said.

Open House is a time set to inform parents on their student and their progress.

“Open house is really more for parents, but the students do have the choice to come as well. So while the turn out wasn’t great, I still think it’s important [to have these events] because that way parents have the opportunity to talk to the people they need or want to talk to. We need to find out why they’re not coming. Maybe it’s just that it is inconvenient because of jobs, times or maybe just transportation. Maybe we should try different days, maybe weekends,” Dr. Modlin said. “Even when Obama was here only 50 percent of students’ parents showed.”

School events that should be recognized as important aren’t getting the credit they deserve.

“I think Open House is a wonderful idea. I do think we could come up with better ideas to advertise it though. The parents that had the highest number of attendance were the seniors. Why? Well because it was held on Senior Night so they needed to know certain information. So if we could figure out a better way to get more people through the door it would be a more meaningful use of time,” Landrith said. “It’s the fact that it’s high school parents, and high school parents are going to be less involved then let’s say elementary school, especially if it’s like their fourth child. However that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t come in and that there aren’t things they need to know. So 12 percent is pretty sad.”

This same effect was relevant during fall conferences on October 29.

According to a statistics via administration, 262 families signed in and attended fall conferences. The numbers are reflected below.

Freshmen – 95 families

Sophomores – 67 families

Juniors – 64 families

Seniors – 35 families

Open House and parent-teacher conferences are intended to inform parents on the progress of their student, the struggles of their student, as well as what potentially could cause their student to improve.