Latest news with #NorthChicagoCommunityHighSchool
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
North Chicago School District 187 community to see new Forrestal School, renovated HS kitchen at start of school year
Putting the finishing touches on the new Forrestal Elementary School and a thoroughly renovated kitchen at North Chicago Community High School, benefiting students at all grade levels, are highlights of the 2025-2026 school year for North Chicago School District 187. 'They prepare meals for all our students,' Superintendent John Price said, referring to a district educating youngsters from preschool through high school. 'They prepare 6,000 meals a day. There will be a wider variety of meals and higher quality food for all our kids.' Students from kindergarten through high school start classes Monday at District 187's three elementary schools, middle school and high school in North Chicago, continuing their education after summer break. Preschool begins Tuesday. Academically, Price said the introduction of a new English language arts curriculum for older students and a deeper dive into certain subjects for younger children will also be part of the new school year. Members of the Forrestal community know this is the final year they will be dealing with leaky roofs and bottled water as they look to the south, where their new $72 million building is nearing completion. Price said it opens in August of next year. 'It should be finished in February. We'll have a ribbon-cutting in April. We'll open it in August of 2026,' Price said. 'We don't want to move in the middle of the school year,' he added, citing the challenges for students, teachers, and staff. With the U.S. Navy contributing $57 million through the federal Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, the district pays the remaining $15 million. Now educating kindergartners through third graders, next year it will have limited fourth and fifth-grade rooms. Located on property of Naval Station Great Lakes, Price said Forrestal has a large percentage of children from military families. Approximately half the current third graders will have the opportunity to remain at Forrestal for fourth and fifth grade. 'We are doing this for our military families so they don't have to transition schools and then do it again when their family changes duty stations,' Price said. 'It will make it easier for our military families to integrate.' Forrestal Principal Cara Kranz said she is looking forward to both this year and the following term when the new building opens. With only one new staff member, she has a veteran team to teach the children. Everyone looks south and sees what will be their new home. 'It will boost our morale to be in a state-of-the-art building,' Cranz said. 'It will be a great opportunity for the students to experience everything new. The students are performing well now. The new building will make it even better.' Eighth graders at Neal Math and Science Academy as well as all high school students, will have a new curriculum in their English Language Arts class. Price said they will be reading and writing about a wider variety of topics. 'There'll be more nonfiction,' Price said. 'Instead of reading one novel, they'll read short stories and other (nonfiction) pieces. It will be a progressive program, building in scale each year. We're giving them a greater variety to prepare them for the variety they'll find in the workplace.' While the elementary school curriculum is unchanged, Price said the students get a more in-depth look at fewer topics. Kranz said it will increase collaboration between students rather than spending most of the time listening to their teacher. 'The teacher will give them their lesson for 15 minutes,' Kranz said. 'After each lesson, they'll collaborate with each other. They'll be talking about what they learned. This will help our diverse learners and those learning English.'
Chicago Tribune
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Students try to solve problems through Waukegan High's Mikva Challenge; ‘You … do democracy to make it happen'
Learning to take action is a major goal for Waukegan High School civics students participating in the annual Mikva Challenge. In fact, two of the groups are primed to lobby members of the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Board of Education to achieve their goal. A team of Jocsan Cruz and Janet Martinez, both juniors, tested the water coming from drinking fountains at the high school's Washington campus and found it lacking. Carlos Torres, another junior, found the taste of the water varied from fountain to fountain. All the fountains are old. Calculating it will cost $26,000 to replace the campus's 18 fountains with those that are state of the art, Torres said he planned to study the names and pictures of board members so he could lobby them if they turned up at Friday's event. 'I want the district to upgrade them for all of the schools,' Torres said. 'I'm going to talk to the board. They could do it over the summer before school starts again.' Torres, Cruz and Martinez were three of more than 100 students representing 53 yearlong projects at the high school's Washington campus to improve a variety of situations in the community. Though the majority of participants were from Waukegan, there were also students from North Chicago Community High School and Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. Cliff Turner, a social studies teacher at Waukegan High School and one of the teachers overseeing the Mikva Challenge, said the theme of the program is 'democracy is a verb.' The students identify an issue, develop a plan to deal with it, do research and get support to activate it. 'You go out and do democracy to make it happen,' he said. 'You fix the problem because you are part of the community. They talk to stakeholders in the community and gather support. It's even more important now that we accept the challenge,' he added, referring to the political climate in Washington D.C. 'Otherwise democracy dies.' Ron Ashlaw, another social studies teacher who instructs civics classes, said many of his students are finding local issues centered around the school. Moving from the newer Brookside campus as freshmen and sophomores to the more than century-old Washington campus for the final two years, they see a big difference in the two buildings. 'They see a lot of things which need fixing,' Ashlaw said. Working mostly in pairs, 12 groups chose gun or gang violence as a topic, while six picked the environment, five chose addiction to drugs or alcohol, and another quintet delved into mental health issues. Discrimination, immigration, education and housing were other topics. Cruz and Martinez also want new water fountains. They tested the water, learning it was satisfactory in some of the school's fountains, but not all. They also got a visit from District 60 school board member Rick Riddle. He encouraged them to reach out to his colleagues. 'I like what I see them doing,' he said. 'I encouraged them to get involved. I told them to email the board. We've had some students come to board meetings with their projects. I encouraged (Cruz and Martinez) to come to the board. They are part of the community.' With a budget of more than $328 million for the current school year, Torres, Cruz and Martinez said they are hopeful their suggestions will lead to action. Christopher Moreno and Akemi Cruz are among the people selecting gun violence as their topic. For Cruz, it is personal because she knows people who have been impacted. It is very personal for Moreno. 'My dad was shot when I was 4,' he said. 'There was nothing I could do when I saw him in the hospital,' he added, saying his father fully recovered. Cruz said 98% of the people they surveyed felt there should be more education before anyone can buy a gun, and 92% said there should be a thorough background check before anyone can purchase one. They plan to talk to Waukegan's mayor and City Council members about stricter gun laws. Knowing schoolmates who deal with stress and trauma in their lives, juniors Ashley Sotelo and Jada Allen developed a project to help those who need to deal with mental health issues. They want counselors or social workers available to help those in need. Victims of discrimination, Josselyn Rivera — because of her accent — and Nathan Creamer — a member of the LGBTQ community — chose prejudice as their topic. They want to see an organization where all people can feel comfortable. 'English is my second language,' Rivera said. 'Spanish I my first language. When I say things, sometimes people laugh at me. That's discrimination.'
