Prairie Crossing Charter School updating its image

Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake has a new logo and updated marketing materials as part of an effort to attract more donations from corporations and local businesses.

Although it receives state money to cover each student, Prairie Crossing isn't eligible for additional funding like traditional public schools. Officials said that's why it needs tools to seek private money to go toward teacher salaries and other operating expenses.

One goal of the new logo is to better establish Prairie Crossing's "brand" as a choice kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school with an environmentally focused curriculum, officials said. Volunteers worked to create the logo.

Prairie Crossing has been using a logo featuring a schoolhouse and cupola with its name in childlike writing.

Now, in addition to more sophisticated lettering of the school name and noting it was established in 1999, the replacement insignia incorporates a hawk in flight and the tagline "Where Education Comes Naturally." The school's nickname is the Hawks.

School Director Myron Dagley said the logo, in the works since 2008, is on letterheads and soon will be displayed prominently on a redesigned Web site, updated marketing materials and clothing.

Dagley said it could have not happened without the volunteer communications, public relations and fundraising committee. He said the school did not seek a company to do the work.

"It would have been cost prohibitive for us," he said. "It would not have been cost prohibitive to a for-profit business."

Dagley said the new brochure - to be rolled out soon for donation solicitations to local business and corporations - is six pages with fresh details. He said the same fundraising materials have been used since 2001.

The school has strong achievement test scores and other milestones to tout in the new brochure, Dagley said. For example, Prairie Crossing represented Illinois as a national charter school of the year winner selected by the Center for Education Reform in 2007.

School officials have said they hope to strike partnerships to gain more donations from corporations and local businesses while reducing reliance on parents for extra money.

Prairie Crossing, which had 358 students as of last week, is a choice school within the boundaries of Woodland Elementary District 50 and Fremont Elementary District 79. It is free for Fremont and Woodland children, but enrollment is decided by lottery.

Last year's Illinois per-pupil aid for Prairie Crossing was $8,653 for Woodland students and $7,978 for the Fremont children. That's where the state money ends and fundraising becomes necessary, school officials say.