While Geneva’s schools were desegregated in the 1870s, neighborhood elementary schools reflected class and racial lines in Geneva and affected funding from the district. Prospect Avenue School educated Ward Six students from northeast Geneva. Within Ward Six were Torrey Park, an Italian American neighborhood, and Chartres Homes, now Courtyard Apartments, a low-income public housing project. The school was overcrowded, had no library, and inadequate classroom space by the 1960s.
A 1967 study found that 56% of Prospect Ave students were non-white and reading and math test scores were consistently lower. In 1968, the Board of Education implemented what was known as the “modified Princeton Plan” in an effort to “improve the racial balance” throughout the elementary system. This included redrawing district lines and busing students to elementary schools outside of their neighborhood.
Charles Kenney (1916-2011) was elected as the first African American member of the Geneva school board in 1972.
Geneva City Schools first Black music teacher was Karen Lucas (1962-2008), an accomplished trumpet player. She taught for 14 years, first at the middle and high schools then as band director at the elementary schools.
To diversify classrooms, the Princeton Plan involved just North St and Prospect Ave Elementary Schools. Busing students between the two schools resulted in overcrowding both buildings, rather than distributing students further to West St, High St, and Glass Factory Bay schools.
The cafeteria at Prospect Ave School was in the basement, where children were forced to eat near the boiler. No attempts were made to improve the conditions at Prospect Ave which remained open until 1981.
Edward Wright (left) was one of the first Black teachers in the district and, as vice principal, was the first administrator of color the district ever hired. His son Bo Wright (right) became superintendent of Geneva City Schools in 2022.