Members of Redhawk ELITE were given the opportunity to voice feedback and concerns to Naperville Central administrators on the soon-to-be-proposed block schedule on Nov. 26.
“The feedback was a lot of questions,” said Steve Jeretina, Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction. “‘If the start of the school day changes time and there’s more opportunities for teachers to collaborate before school, how will that impact activities?’ That’s a great question that we got to take a look at in the new schedule that we’re recommending.”
ELITE, a student leadership program composed of members of Central’s sports and activities, is one of only a few student groups who have reviewed the full proposal. The Principal’s Advisory Council also provided feedback to administrators on Nov. 14.
“We’re not trying to be cagey or hide anything, but there’s a lot of context that we need to provide, to provide direction as to how we arrived at what we shared with students out there,” Jeretina said.
Junior Malia Shen is a member of both ELITE and PAC. She appreciated how the small groups allowed people to feel comfortable sharing their opinions during the PAC discussion.
“A lot of people were hesitant to be in a class for that long because they think they [will] get antsy, and so that was a big [concern],” Shen said. “Covering a lot more material in one day was concerning for some people.”
After the meeting, Jeretina said some students relayed that the focus group was able to provide them with clarity concerning the new schedule and answered many of their initial questions. Jeretina said that with fewer classes in a day, many students believe there will be increased school-extracurricular balance.
“We’re working to coordinate with all the levels to make sure that [the proposal] is in its most finished state before we provide information,” Jeretina said. “Right now, there’s things that have not been finalized. We don’t want to say something that we then have to say, ‘well, actually, it changed.’”
Attendees were able to address most questions, according to Chen. She thinks that unanswered concerns will likely be resolved in the future as plans remain tentative.
All feedback from both staff and students is tracked on an internal website available to members of administration and the District 203 Board of Education. The feedback can be reviewed ahead of and after the official proposal is made to the Board of Education on Jan. 21.
