A select group of Forrestal Elementary School third graders, including Elianna Castro, will become fourth-grade students at a newly built school bearing the same name, rather than heading to A.J. Katzenmaier Academy to complete the fourth and fifth grade, as has been the practice.
Third graders can choose to spend the next two years at the new, state-of-the-art Forrestal, which replaces the aging existing school building — where lead pipes made the drinking fountains unusable, and featured peeling paint and other defects — when the 2026-27 term begins in August.
“It’s good because there are a lot of new things,” Eliana said. “It is safer and brand new. I’m excited because all the new things will make what we do in school better. It’s great because of the new things the teachers will use to teach us.”
Elianna and her schoolmates in the Forrestal choir were among the members of the school community who watched Principal Cara Kranz and U.S. Navy Capt. Stephen M. Yargosz cut a ribbon marking the completion of the new Forrestal Elementary on Friday in North Chicago.
Currently, 30% of Forrestal’s 367 students are members of military families. The school is located within the Naval Station Great Lakes military installation.
When 55 fourth graders begin attending the new school in August, North Chicago School District 187 Superintendent John Price said he anticipates the enrollment will climb to around 420. There will be another increase in the 2027-28 term, when fifth-grade students are added.
Price said demolition of the original Forrestal building is scheduled to start on June 10 and will continue through October.
Kranz began leading Forrestal in the 2021-22 school year after spending more than 24 years in the Chicago Public Schools. Like Elianna, she is thrilled with the new surroundings she will oversee.
“With the new facilities, it will extend what the teachers are able to teach the students,” she said.
Shortly after entering the building on the first floor of the three-story structure, visitors will see the library on the left. Price calls it the “heart of the school.”
Each kindergarten room has its own bathroom. There is also a playground for kindergartners only. It is enclosed for safety. There is a sensory room on each floor. Every classroom has a book nook where students can have some quiet and privacy while reading.
“The book nook is there because reading is a prominent part of what we do. We want to make reading a passion for our kids,” Price said. “The sensory room is a place where a kid can go and regulate.”
There are enough solar panels on the roof to provide the building with all the energy it needs. Price said it creates a net-zero situation in which the school produces all the power required to make it environmentally friendly.
“The energy savings will be over $1 million over the life of the building,” he said.
Price made sure U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, was aware of the district’s needs, including Forrestal. Just over three years ago, Schneider was the keynote speaker at a boot camp graduation at Naval Station Great Lakes. U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro was there.
“I told him I wanted a new Forrestal school,” Schneider said. “He said, ‘Let’s check it out.’ We walked the hallways, saw the conditions and spoke to the students and educators doing everything they could with far less than they deserved.”
Del Toro arranged for $57 million to be set aside for the new school through the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. Price said the school was required to spend $20 million on the building. The funds were there, but there was no time for a referendum to approve it.
Needing to move quickly to keep the federal funding in place, state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and some of her colleagues in the Illinois General Assembly pushed legislation to eliminate the need for a referendum through the legislature.
“Education is the great equalizer,” Johnson said, “North Chicago students deserve the best school. Doing things like this, we level the playing field.”
Allowing students to continue their elementary education at Forrestal rather than going to Katzenmaier as they did in the past is part of the commitment to educate children from military families. Price said military families are reassigned every few years. Staying at Forrestal is one less change for the children. They have priority.
“That will mean less transition for them,” Price said at the time. “They get plenty of transition when the families change stations.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, attended the groundbreaking in September 2024 and was excited about the potential for the students. He remembers a time when sailors did not bring their families with them when they were assigned to Great Lakes. Those days are gone.
“Thank God those days are behind us,” Durbin said. “Now this is a place where Navy personnel can come for the education.”
Reflecting on the challenges of learning in an inferior building in need of significant deferred maintenance, Schneider said he knew how important the new building would be. He is thrilled with the reality.
“What a beautiful reality it is. This building reflects the beautiful community of students and educators that truly make up Forrestal Elementary,” Schneider said. The old building “did not match the potential of the young minds learning inside.”
Yargosz, the commanding officer at the Navy base, said after the ribbon-cutting ceremony that schools like the new Forrestal will create a good learning environment for both military and civilian children.
“Amazing schools provide the fertile grounds upon which young minds blossom and develop the critical skills that have helped the entire United States become a great nation,” Yargosz said. “Amazing schools like this one are not possible without staunch and continuous advocacy and support.”
