GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- On Monday, some Green Bay students stepped inside their classrooms for the first time in a year.
Jamie Jensen's sophomore at Southwest High School is going twice a week.
"This was a great first step," Jensen, a parent, said. "Now let's go to five days and then let's explore some intense summer school."
At Monday's board meeting, Green Bay Area Public Schools discussed adding more in-person learning days. Select groups of high school and middle school students haven't been in class at all yet, but some parents are fighting to send their kids to class a full five days per week.
"That's the other problem with this half and half [A-B cohorts] of are your group of friends gonna be in your half or not?" Jensen asked. "So that was one of his [her son's] questions. So he was happy that one of his friends was [in his class]."
Jessica Slawinski has four kids in the district. She doesn't want her students learning virtually either.
"I understand their [GBAPS] feeling that they need to do the one day off [every Wednesday] for the elementary," Slawinski said. "But I don't necessarily think that it's a necessity."
But one of her two daughters is happy to have a little virtual time.
"I feel like we should get a break on Wednesday, like stay how it is virtual," elementary student Ava Renier said. "Because like [we] have two days [in person] and two more days [in person]… we should get a break then."
Still, the district says nearly 27 percent of its students have chosen to stay virtual so far.
"We are switching school districts next year," Jensen said. "Even though he'll be a junior... I don't know what's gonna happen in the future."
And while the district says it is a struggle to keep some classrooms socially distanced, it's planning to schedule a special board meeting to debate adding more in-person learning time.
"It warmed my heart when my eighth grader came home on his first day back and he said 'mom... I already feel more confident with my math work just having that one face-to-face day with an actual teacher,'" Slawinski said.
Currently, GBAPS students between Head Start and 5th grade are back in person four days a week. Grades 6 to 12 are on an A-B cohort model with students sitting in class twice a week.
