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.”
