Mount Prospect Public School District 57 is a community public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

that serves over 2,000 pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students in

Mount Prospect, Illinois Mount Prospect is a village in Elk Grove and Wheeling Townships in Cook County, Illinois, about northwest of downtown Chicago, and approximately 4 miles north of O'Hare International Airport. As of the 2020 census, the village had a total pop ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, a suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

covering an area of .District 57 Community and Schools
Mount Prospect School District 57. Accessed October 11, 2007.

History

In the early 1890s, William Busse, a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

officer in what is now Mount Prospect, Illinois started a public

for the town to attract residents to the area. Before then, students in the area attended five different schools in nearby Elk Grove,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, and Wheeling townships. Mount Prospect resident William Wille, a craftsman, donated a plot of and sold 3 plots of land for $200 to Busse. The one-roomed Central School, built by Wille, opened in the mid-1890s. 7 students ranging in age from 6 to 14 were enrolled during the first school year. As Mount Prospect lacked a central meeting place or

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

, Central School also served as Mount Prospect's primary social hall, community center, and eventual public library. By 1917, enrollment at the Central School had increased to over 30. In 1927, a new four-roomed, $25,000 school building opened across the street from the one-room schoolhouse at the corner of Central Road and Route 83 (Main Street) to help alleviate overcrowding at the one-room schoolhouse. In 1937, a $30,000 addition of four more

classrooms A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

and a gymnasium were built onto the newer school building (also known as the Central Standard School), and the district sold the original one-room schoolhouse to nearby St. John's Episcopal Church for $500. In the coming years, several additions were added to the Central School to help better serve a growing population. More rapid population growth after World War Two led the district to open Lincoln School at 700 West Lincoln Street in 1950. Fairview (1952), William Busse (1954), Lions Park (1956), Sunset Park (1958), Westbrook (1961), and Gregory (1963) Schools were also opened as new neighborhoods were built. Lincoln also received additions that doubled the size of the school in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 4,750 students were enrolled in the district in 1965. As demographic changes started to occur in the late 1960s, district enrollment began to drop. In 1970, Central School closed due to declining enrollment and the deteriorating condition of the building. The building was demolished in 1975 to make way for a new public library. Thus, Lincoln became the only junior high school in the district. To accommodate the large number of new students, Lincoln Junior High School was greatly expanded. As enrollment continued to decline declined, Gregory Elementary School closed in 1975. The building was eventually sold and still standing, with additions, as a Christian college and church. Sunset Park School was closed by 1978, and the building was rented out for many uses until 1985 when the Mount Prospect Park District negotiated to buy it. The park district demolished the building shortly after the sale and it is now the site of a park. Amid public outcry, Busse School closed in 1982. The building was sold to the Park District and demolished in 1994. In the mid-1990s, Fairview and Lions Park Elementary Schools were demolished and rebuilt. Westbrook Elementary School closed in 1996. The building was leased by the district to the NSSEO, a special education organization, for continued use as a school. By 2006, overcrowding was taking place in district elementary schools. The NSSEO did not renew their lease on Westbrook with the district that year, and Westbrook once again became a public elementary school for children in preschool and kindergarten.

First grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by ...

classes at Lions Park and Fairview were transferred to Westbrook in 2009 to further alleviate overcrowding.

Schools

The school district operates 2 elementary schools, 1 learning center, and 1

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

References

External links

* {{School districts in Cook County, Illinois School districts in Cook County, Illinois Mount Prospect, Illinois 1890s establishments in Illinois