Lincoln School closing brings mix of emotions

The creaky floors in the original part of Lincoln School in Mundelein convey a certain charm. So do the narrow halls and exposed pipes — like an old worn glove, still warm and comfortable.

This front section facing Route 176 just west of Route 45 was built in 1894 as a two-room country school, where the superintendent visited on horseback.

Subsequent expansions included a small gym in 1938, with a stage on one end where school plays and events have been held for generations.

“A lot of parents can remember coming here when they were young. This was the center of the community,” Principal Kathleen Miller said. “People in their 80s come in and reminisce. It’s fascinating.”

But it was the innovative instruction introduced in 1997 that made Lincoln “A School for the 21st Century.”

While that theme will survive in spirit, the school itself will close for good on Friday, a victim of declining enrollment and a desire by struggling Mundelein Elementary District 75 to save money.

In the waning days of the academic year, students, teachers and parents at the school, which serves second through fifth grade, are looking ahead with a mixture of anticipation and melancholy.

“They’re excited and sad at the same time,” said Carrie Comincioli, a fourth-grade teacher.

“It’s very emotional. It really is,” added Miller, who has been in the post about four years. “We kind of constructed it as a family.”

For 2011-12, Lincoln students will shift to Mechanics Grove School, which will serve third- through fifth-graders. Students who would have been starting second grade at Lincoln will remain at Washington School another year.

The decision earlier this year to close the smallest of District 75’s four schools was meant to maximize resources without diluting the offerings to students, though some critics contend the decision was made too quickly.

“It’s a way to reduce our overhead costs and reallocate funds to maintain existing programs,” said school board President Wells Frice. Librarians and social workers already were being shared in light staff reductions, for example.

“If we hadn’t made this choice, we end up trying to have more staff members provide services in both buildings,” Frice said.

The decision lends itself to more well-rounded offerings to include art and music classes, for example, agreed Kim Lundquist a parent-teacher organization member representing Lincoln.

She acknowledged there are those who remain “challenged” by the decision. PTO members early on realized what was going to happen and decided to “help everyone come together and make it positive,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Lincoln has been shuttered. It was closed in 1979 also because of declining enrollment.

But a building boom took hold and classroom space was at a premium. School board members in the mid-1990s decided to invest heavily in Lincoln, not only in terms of repairs and upgrades, but in a new way of teaching that would garner national attention.

Lincoln reopened as a “choice school” in 1996. But because of construction delays it would be another year before a year-round schedule — the only one in Lake County — was introduced.

Kids attended the same number of days as the other schools but in different segments — with three-week breaks in the fall, winter and spring and a six-week break in summer.

Another unique aspect combined students in various grade levels in the same classroom. “60 Minutes” did a segment.

“It was a lot of fun and excitement doing something that was unusual in terms of reopening a building with a different program and calendar,” said Frice, a school board member at the time. “No one knew for sure if students and staff would choose to attend there.”

The experiment worked. Lincoln brought recognition to the community and district and became an important part of District 75 history.

But in recent years, the poor housing market and lack of opportunity for new development has hurt the landlocked district. Enrollment has dropped more than a quarter to about 300 students.

Gradually, other challenges led to a reorganization in the district. Lincoln’s year-round calendar was dropped as the multi-age classrooms thinned.

Some parents contend Lincoln’s fate was a foregone conclusion, and public input was not seriously considered.

“I’m still disappointed that Lincoln’s closing. I think it’s a mistake,” said Michael Atkinson, a parent of two daughters, who will be going to Mechanics Grove.

“They absolutely know, they absolutely care and they’re pretty darn disappointed,” he added.

Atkinson said Miller’s naming as principal of Mechanics Grove takes much of the sting out of the decision, however. The current principal, Dana Smith, will become the district’s director of educational support services. Another vacant administrative position is not being filled.

Technology is infused in all aspects of learning at Lincoln. District officials hope to transfer and enhance the best features of Lincoln with those at Mechanics Grove, which is being designed with technology, science, engineering and math as the focus.

“We have a moral responsibility to give these children everything they need for the future,” Miller said. “If we had to cut back more on staff and had cuts that would significantly impact them, they we’re not doing our duty.”

Meanwhile, students are getting eased into the move as well.

Nearly all 732 students from both schools recently were brought together at Mechanics Grove to paint small squares of plywood to be assembled into two large murals.

Students from each school were paired as painting buddies.

“We want the Lincoln students to walk in this building and say, ‘That’s my square, I painted it, I belong here,’” said Jodi Dorfler, the parent of a fourth-grader at Mechanics Grove, who originated the idea as a way to help break the ice. “Everybody wants this consolidation to be successful. This is one project that it’s evident, everybody came together.”