Freeport students may attend a different school next school year

FREEPORT, Ill. (WTVO) — Freeport School District 145 is set to undergo major changes before the next school year, including the relocation of lots of students.

District Superintendent Dr. Anna Alvarado said she is committed to her students. In November of 2024, after data was collected, Dr. Alvarado said she knew change had to be made.

The data showed that there weren’t enough resources and opportunities for growth at the lower levels. So, to target those groups, she and her team developed a plan to move all preschool classes out of elementary schools and into one central location.

“To me, if we know we’re going to do the right thing for kids, what am I waiting for?” Dr. Alvarado said. “Why can’t we create an Early Childhood Center instead of the preschoolers having different experiences in four different elementary buildings?”

The plan starts this fall and involves several moves.

First, the Jones Farrar IB (JFIB) school is becoming the Early Childhood Education Center. It will house pre-K through four-year-old students.

The current JFIB students will move to Carl Sandburg Middle School. It will stay JFIB in name and will house K-7th grade students this fall, but will expand to 8th grade students for the fall of 2026.

As for the Carl Sandburg students, they will move to Freeport Middle School (FMS). FMS will house 6th-8th graders.

“There’s so many moving pieces and thinking about transportation, lunches, meals, thinking about staffing models,” Dr. Alvarado said. “It really is a lot of balls in the air.”

Director of Early Childhood Sara Latimer said she thinks it is an ambitious plan, but also the right one.

“We are termed a preschool desert by the state, which means that we do not have enough childcare and preschool programs to serve the kids that are in our region,” Latimer said. “We know it’s a necessity.”

Dr. Alvarado said she is excited to see the transition.

“We’re very clear on the why we are doing this now, we have to figure out the how we’re going to do this, and get all my people in my team and also working alongside different unions to make this happen,” Dr. Alvarado said.

Current 5th and 6th grade students in Carl Sandburg will have the option to be part of the JFIB School in the Fall through a lottery application.