Mount Prospect School District 57 is a smaller, community-based district where each child receives the personal attention and support they need to succeed as we prepare them for high school and beyond.
Our community partners together to inspire every student, every day to reach their full potential. This family feel and individualized approach creates a special environment in which our students thrive.
However, the State of Illinois has put a significant obstacle in our way: we are now required to implement full-day kindergarten by 2027, and we don’t currently have the space or staff to meet this unfunded mandate. All our surrounding districts offer full-day kindergarten—the families in our district deserve the same opportunity for their children.
Our community is also requesting additional improvements they would like to see in our schools. Many classrooms and science labs look the same as they did decades ago, limiting the types of learning and instruction we can provide our students. We don’t have enough student support spaces, and the space we do have isn’t private. Teachers are having to provide one-on-one and small group instruction in hallways and stairwells because of a lack of space. Two of our schools don’t have fire sprinklers. There are accessibility challenges at multiple schools, and our infrastructure and mechanicals continue to age. We don’t have dedicated space for innovative and STEM programming. Art and music students are relegated to mobile classrooms. Our gyms are too small and locker rooms antiquated.
We are one of the most fiscally conservative districts in the region, always accomplishing more with less. We spend the least, by far, compared to our peer districts. We operate with a balanced budget every year, with each department prioritizing spending on what will benefit students the most. And we’re very proud of our citizens finance advisory committee, made up of parents, community members, and even former students with financial backgrounds, who actively work with district staff and our board to ensure we’re spending money responsibly.
But with the limited funding available to us compared to our surrounding districts, we are not able to achieve full-day kindergarten or the other improvements desired by the community without additional funding.
That’s why our community has come together to develop a fiscally responsible plan to address these challenges. This plan would expand Westbrook School for Young Learners to make space for full-day kindergarten and build a new Lincoln Middle School. The district then worked with our Citizens Finance Advisory Committee to reduce the cost of the plan by $12.1 million using our fund balance and other district funds.
The final consensus $85 million plan will appear on the community’s ballots for approval in the upcoming November 5th election. If approved, the referendum will:
- Fulfill the State’s Mandate for Full-Day Kindergarten
- Improve Learning Environments for All Students
- Increase Safety and Security
The referendum would allow the district to fulfill the state’s mandate that we offer full-day kindergarten by 2027. These new classrooms would be located in the Westbrook School for Young Learners addition. Full-day kindergarten would increase academic and social-emotional learning for early learners and potentially provide childcare savings for parents.
The referendum would improve learning environments throughout the district, benefiting all students. This includes new larger, modernized classrooms and science labs at Lincoln with improved technology and furniture to accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s learning and instruction. It includes dedicated and more private student resource and support spaces for specialized instruction and related student services, including special education, nursing, speech therapy, reading and math support, and ELL. It also includes dedicated innovative spaces with hands-on learning opportunities including modernized media centers, STEM labs, design and tech experiences, and maker spaces.
The referendum would also further increase safety and security. This means safer and more secure environments for students and teachers including fire sprinklers and tornado shelters at Westbrook and Lincoln. This includes safer, updated, and more accessible schools through investments in infrastructure and mechanicals, including roofs, exterior shell, walls, flooding mitigation, bathroom upgrades, HVAC replacements, and elevators at Lincoln and Westbrook. The referendum would also eliminate the use of mobile classrooms at Westbrook by providing dedicated spaces for art and music.
Our kids deserve the same quality educational opportunities available to students in neighboring districts. The community’s plan for our schools would provide our early learners a more comprehensive kindergarten experience, which has proven to improve their academic success throughout their entire lives. And it would improve learning environments throughout the district, increasing student achievement and meeting the needs of all students now and into the future.