Geneva D-304 teachers realized by Sept. that alternate Fridays was not working

GENEVA – Geneva Education Association President Kevin Gannon said leadership and representatives in each building met every week and by the end of September, teachers agreed that the every other Friday in-school plan was not working – eventually leading to the district going to all remote Fridays.

Students with last names A to K attend Monday and Wednesday, and students with last names L to Z attend Tuesday and Thursday. And until second semester began Jan. 29, they attended on alternate Fridays.

“When we started, there was not anybody who thought it was going to last through a full semester,” Gannon said. “At the end of September, we started discussing what are we going to do about Fridays because this is a mess.”

While some parents in Geneva District 304 have questioned and criticized the school board’s decision to go full remote learning on Fridays, Gannon said teachers and staff were heavily involved in weeks of discussion leading up to the change.

Instead of every other Friday, students would have live, synchronous instruction online for 2 1/2 hours with their teachers and all their classmates, as well as asynchronous learning time, officials had said at the Jan. 11 meeting when the board voted.

All-remote learning on Fridays would ensure that every student would have in-person days and one live remote day, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Andrew Barrett had said then.

“Teachers in the planning committee said that is not going to work,” Gannon said when the hybrid plan went into action last fall. “In some cases, they would see an A student three days in a row and a B student two days in a row, then again on Friday.”

A students refers to those attending Mondays and Wednesdays and B students to those attending Tuesdays and Thursdays in the hybrid plan.

With various days off, the A and B students became out of sync and sometimes a teacher would not see a student for a week, Gannon said.

For the student who didn’t go on a particular Friday, he or she would be behind by the next week, he said.

They started half-days on Fridays in November to balance out a four-day week and then started to talk about second semester changes in late December and early January, Gannon said.

Teachers surveyed had four plans to chose from and were 52% in favor of the four-day week with a fifth day – Friday – as a remote learning day, Gannon said, with support staff and other school employees, such as custodians, agreeing.

“For us, as teachers, the way I frame it is, ‘OK, what is going to be best? Is it best to have two A days and two B days and consistency … A and B days staying in the same place and seeing them all virtually on Friday vs. being out of step?” Gannon said.

“This was multi-tiered, multi-layered decision-making. This was not the school board, out on its own, figuring out how to make this work,” Gannon said. “Different committees filtered down to building representatives and for us, a individual survey of every teacher.”

Of the teaching staff, 82% responded to the survey, he said.

Their input went to the administration and the assistant superintendents presented the plan to the board at the Jan. 11 meeting.

School Board President Taylor Egan said even working collaboratively does not mean the board can expect 100% approval.

“I feel like the board is made up of seven people who deeply care about their community enough to step into this role and put themselves in this situation,” Egan said. “Now that we are in it, it is very important that we treat each other respectfully so we can have a dialog that is productive. ... There are four on this board with young kids. We are all in it. Our stakeholders are beyond just the parents in our community. It’s the entire taxing body.”

Parents who disagree with the all-remote Friday plan – or who want all five days in school – are planning to picket before the 7 p.m. meeting on Monday and to speak to the board.