A look inside: Cotton Creek School

Cotton Creek School

Address: 545 Newport Court, Island Lake

Phone: (847) 526-4700

Web site: www.cusd118.lake.k12.il.us/creek/

District's name: Wauconda Community Unit School District 118

Number of students/grade levels offered: Kindergarten through fifth grade, 668 students

Number of staff: Approximately 65

When was school built: 1995

Interesting tidbit: Cotton Creek School is built adjacent to Cotton Creek Marsh. "We have used that as a learning opportunity," Principal Darlene Baker said, mentioning that the McHenry County Conservation District conducted a bluebird project there with students.

Principal: Darlene Baker

• She is in her fifth year as principal. She has been at the school since it opened in 1995, first as a first-grade teacher.

• What is your favorite memory from Cotton Creek School?: "The one that impacted me that most was when we had the 9/11 catastrophe," she said. "We had just an amazing outpouring of patriotism." Students made patches to show what patriotism meant to them and the school fashioned them into quilts. "They still hang in the hallway today," Baker said. "Every visitor that comes in sees these quilts."

• What do you think is an unique aspect of your school? "We had 13 staff members have a baby (in 2002) from summer to summer," Baker said, noting a picture of the staff made it into the paper with the heading "26 Tiny Feet." "That's kind of a unique aspect," she said.

• What are you most proud of? "We never see students as just part of a group," she said. "(The staff), even our lunch supervisor, they all really take pride that they get to know each kid… It's a real sense of small community."

• If all school enrollments were determined by choice, what would you say to potential parents to convince them to choose Cotton Creek for their children? "I think we have excellent academic standards," Baker said. "We provide support for students who may be struggling… That's just part of what goes on every day in every classroom." She said from students who need more help to those who require more challenges, "we provide that."

• How has technology changed the way students learn over the past five years? Has that been a good change? "While it's often very frustrating, it just provides us opportunities to provide students more than what we were able to provide them five years ago," she said. "It's never-ending and it's always updated."

• If you can get one thing accomplished between now and the end of May in your school, what would it be? "One of the things we addressed here very seriously is bullying. We want to make sure that kids understand that Cotton Creek School is a bully-free zone," Baker said, noting the school wants to get across to kids that taking action when they see bullying is very important. "We want to be sure that kids know that they have control in situations here at Cotton Creek."