School / Community Characteristics
Waukegan, Illinois is a historic city located in the northeast corner of Lake County on Lake Michigan. In the past, Waukegan had a strong industrial base, high socioeconomic status and stable population. Within the last twenty years, many changes have occurred. Several business and industries have left the community. The tax base is now comprised of a large senior citizen population on fixed incomes and a growing number of renters instead of homeowners. Also Waukegan is comprised of a culturally diverse population. In the last fifteen years, Waukegan has attracted numerous immigrant families. The Latino population is the most progressive in growth. District #60's student population is a reflection of these changes. For example, the student population is comprised of 10.6% White, 22.1% Black, 2.3% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.1% Native American and 64.9% Hispanic. The mobility rate is 17.3%. Students considered limited in English Proficiency are 25.9% and 54% of students≠ families having a low-income base.
Little Fort is a kindergarten through 5th grade attendance center and is one of the frontier elementary schools within Waukegan. The school is located on the far north side of Waukegan among an area referred to as the Garden Homes, modest small ranch-style residences. Recently, a rental community of over 350 units was built. New construction replaced a beautiful wooded area behind the school≠s south-side boundary.
Little Fort is a large building with two additions. The student enrollment is approximately 700. Kindergarten has two sections. First grade has six sections. Second grade has four sections. Third, fourth and fifth grade levels have five sections. Also the classrooms are crowded with 25 or 28 students depending on the program. Little Fort houses three self-contained programs, monolingual, bilingual and gifted. Classroom clusters are designated mostly by grade level for teaming and integration purposes. The facility is aging and in need of renovation (i.e., leaking windows, tile replacement, no screens, poor heating and cooling, security updates). The classrooms have been provided with monitors and computers from a district-wide tech grant. Also all grade levels utilize a mobile lab of 30 laptop computers.
Little Fort has one principal, an assistant to the principal, two secretaries, one daytime custodian and one and a half night custodians. The full-time support staff consists of two f.t.e. Reading support teachers, one Learning Disabilities Resource teacher, one physical education teacher, one music teacher, one computer aide, one library aide and one speech pathologist. Additional part-time support staff include one nurse, one physical education teacher, three art teachers, one social worker and various specialists who work with special needs students as determined by IEPs. The lunch program is administered by a part-time staff, which are members of our community.
In addition, to compliment the human resources, we have very specific programs provided to facilitate the needs of our diverse and culturally varied student population. These programs are: reading support programs for large and small group instruction, the learning disabilities resource program, speech and language in English and Spanish formats, intervention tutoring, reading USA program (5th grade students tutoring second grade students) and the PBIS (positive behavior and intervention system) program. These programs are designed to provide the necessary skills for all of our students to be successful.
There have been four retirements, five relocations and additional bilingual and monolingual sections added. As a result, the Little Fort staff has an increase of novice teachers/non-tenured teachers. However, there has been a significant increase in staff development monies from through Title I, Title II, Title IV and Title V grants.
Little Fort community of staff, parents and students responded to various formal and informal surveys to assess our strengths and areas for improvement. The following was derived from their feedback:
Strengths of the school:
- Parents believe that learning is important
- Communication between the home and school
- Supportive PTO
- ESL classes for Parents
- Strong staff development component
- Safe and positive learning environment
- 10 teachers in pursuit of advanced degrees
Challenges of the school:
- Majority of students English is their second language
- Student/ teacher ratio Bilingual 25:1, Monolingual 28:1
- High student mobility rate
- General repairs needed for infrastructure of aging physical plant
- Cramped classrooms due to poor architectural design
- Increasing number of under resourced families
- Large school size - population ~700
- Increase in inexperienced staff
