Students return to upgraded classrooms, facilities on first day of school in U-46

Overcoming first-day jitters, thousands of students returned to classrooms Thursday across Elgin Area School District U-46, ushering in the new school year.

Roughly 33,000 students in kindergarten through high school were greeted with new facilities and updated learning spaces districtwide, after a busy summer construction season wrapped up. Many of the building additions and renovations were funded through $179 million in bonds voters approved in 2023.

Among the changes are expanded preschool classrooms, which are now available at 26 school sites — up from 15 in the 2025-26 school year. Preschoolers begin classes Sept. 3.

U-46 transitioned one of its two Centers for Early Learning into an elementary school and added more preschool classrooms in neighborhood schools to make early learning more accessible and convenient for families. It also helps the youngest learners build an early connection to their school communities, officials said.

Illinois Park Elementary School in Elgin, which originally opened in 1999 as an elementary school but later served as an early childhood center, welcomed elementary students back for the first time in nearly 20 years. Its classrooms have been reconfigured, and common areas and support spaces have been refreshed. A new multi-purpose room also will be ready for use later this fall.

“I’m excited about all of this. It’s a teacher’s dream to open a new school,” Illinois Park Elementary Assistant Principal Maria Martin-Bowman said.

Martin-Bowman was at Washington Elementary for 2025-26, the last school year for the 135-year-old building. U-46 also closed Lowrie Elementary in Elgin and Hanover Countryside in Streamwood after last school year.

Illinois Park Principal Cody Papp said she is looking forward to having the bigger, brighter space as students currently use a smaller lower-level space for eating breakfast and lunch.

“We’re also looking forward to our focus this year on building a community,” Papp said.

Papp was assistant principal at Sunnydale Elementary School in Streamwood last school year but started her career in 2019 as an early childhood special education teacher at Illinois Park.

Also for the first time, about 2,400 incoming sixth graders joined seventh and eighth graders in middle schools — sixth graders previously attended elementary school.

Last school year, U-46 converted Hawk Hollow Middle School in Bartlett into a middle school; two middle schools received additions and major renovations for this school year; and next school year, U-46 is expected to open a new middle school in Elgin, named Legacy, now under construction off Rohrssen Road.

Next month, the district will break ground on a new elementary school, as yet unnamed, in Elgin at the site of the former David C. Cook property, 850 N. Grove Ave., along the Fox River. That school will replace McKinley Elementary, which dates to 1887 and is located a half-mile away.

A 46,000-square-foot addition at Kenyon Woods Middle School in South Elgin and a 53,000-square-foot addition at Kimball Middle School in Elgin, along with additional renovations, were completed over the summer to help accommodate those incoming sixth graders this fall.

Moving sixth graders into middle schools allows them to receive more specialized instruction from teachers and gain earlier access to extracurricular activities, science labs, fine arts, and additional middle school opportunities, officials said.

All middle school students will be grouped into smaller, grade-level teams with the same group of core academic teachers. This approach has been shown to improve student learning and foster stronger teacher-student relationships, officials said.

Among the high schools, Larkin in Elgin debuts a new athletic field this year. Home games will be held on-site at the high school’s Royals Athletic Complex.

Built in 1962, Larkin never before had its own athletic complex. The new facility will feature a running track, seating for more than 2,000 spectators, and a turf playing surface called Ray Haley Field in honor of the school’s first athletic director and football coach.

The official ribbon-cutting for the complex is Oct. 1. The Royals will host their first home football game at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 against Streamwood High School, and the “crosstown rivalry” game against Elgin High School will be played at Larkin at 7 p.m. Oct. 16.

mkrishnamurthy@dailyherald.com

Elgin Courier-News freelance reporter Mike Danahey contributed to this report.