Lawrence junior high school principals want to close the book on rush-hour style parent-teacher conferences.

“We’ve always been frustrated because we haven’t been able to conference in a way meaningful to parents,” said Ted Juneau, principal at Central Junior High School.

The district’s junior high principals are lobbying the school board to double the time earmarked for parent-teacher conferences. A full day would be added in the fall and spring to supplement two evening sessions already on both the fall and spring calendars.

A majority of the school board appears willing to accept this change as well as another suggestion to conduct junior high conferences in February rather than March.

“The kids benefit from having that kind of feedback going to the parents earlier,” school board member Leni Salkind said.

Under the current system, parents of junior high students stand in long lines at crowded evening sessions to visit teachers. Parents rarely get more than five minutes with each teacher.

At Southwest Junior High School, parents have had to huddle in the rain while waiting outside the school’s numerous portable classrooms.

“They could do a better job if they have two days,” board member Sue Morgan said.

Sandee Crowther, the district’s executive director of planning and program development, said there had been many complaints about the current setup. The growing number of parents attending junior high school conferences make the current format unworkable, she said.

“It’s kind of like trying to figure out which line is the best line at a shopping center,” she said.

Crowther said the interest shown by parents should be rewarded by expanding time slots for conferences.

Parent-teacher meetings in Lawrence elementary schools tend to go more smoothly because they’re done during the day each fall and spring. Elementary teachers also have 15 to 25 students under their direction, while junior high school teachers could have as many as 150 students in their classes.

Morgan says the change would reduce by two days each year the time junior high students are in class. That’s acceptable, she said, because junior high students are now required to attend classes for more days than other students in the district.