District 127 cares about the opinions of the community, and for this reason, a survey was sent out to non-students to know what could be improved in both of the buildings, Grayslake North and Grayslake Central, as an attempt to even out the opportunities that both of the schools have to offer. Many people responded.
Grayslake North was founded in 2004, making it 20 years old, while Central was founded in 1947, making it 77 years old, therefore five decades and seven years older than North, which involves different needs throughout both schools, and even so as of now, they are engaging in the community’s feedback.
“I think I was really curious about how some schools have some things that are different than the other school. Do the people on the Central side of town care about what happens at North, and vice versa? Because, if your kid goes to North, I don’t care about what’s going on in Central overall, and so again, North has some certain needs. Central has other certain needs, which might be different, but if we’re going to ask the community to pay for it, it’s as a district. It’s not like, ‘I like this, ignore it, I don’t care about that. So I’m just going to pay for that.’ It’s one big thing. So just kind of like, the community feels for the district as a whole whether or not you have kids that go to this school or that school,” said superintendent Dr.Mikkel Storaasli.
The feedback of this survey was described as “all over the place,” mainly due to many things being requested, such as things surrounding career tech, hands-on work, culinary, and including S.T.E.M.
“If you took it or anybody took it, it was kind of all over the place. So a little bit about the theater, ask them a little bit about the rest of the rooms over there, what do you think about CTU, which is like career tech, hands-on kind of like woodworking, metals, foods, culinary stuff. So a little bit all over the place. Just again, we’re trying to find out what resonates with people,” Storaasli said.
There is a committee that is helping with the data that was collected from the survey, along with breaking it down in different ways, and this committee meets with parents, administrators, and teachers.
“We are like a hub for the community, whether you have kids or not. So we want to make sure what we’re doing and if we’re making any additions or making some big changes to the buildings. It’s what the community wants, not what Dr. Storaasli wants,” Storaasli explained.
