Forrestal Elementary School

This school is fabulous, my children and I absolutely love it! I had two daughters who attended Forrestal in grades 3-4 and 1-2. The principal is outstanding as well and provides great leadership to the school!
--Submitted by a parent

ATTENTION ANY MILITARY FAMILIES MOVING TO GREAT LAKES: Do not send your kids to this school! It is absolutely horrible!! Move to Gurnee or Libertyville. You will not be sorry.
--Submitted by a parent

Dear principle...look at all the NEGATIVE reviews for your school. This should be a WAKE UP CALL to you. How sad and pathetic that our service members have to send their children to this terrible school. You should be ashamed and embarrassed. Fix your school NOW. In my opinion, you should be fired if you can't get it together.
--Submitted by a parent

First off the person who gave this school 4 stars 2 years ago must be staff and not a parent because I don't know one parent who would give this school more then 2 stars and the only reason I gave it one is because I can't give it negative stars. My son is in first grade this year and when he was in Kindergarten here his teacher was great. I hope to get her for my daughter next year. His 1st grade teacher however is HORRIBLE!!!! She has not patience for the kids and singles kids out and never lets them explain themselves. My son never had a problem in K and I have a hard time believing he is such a problem now and that all her students are "horrible kids." I am worried that when we leave here my kids are going to lack basic skills so I work with them at home so they are caught up. If we ever has the misfortune of coming here again I will home school my kids or take on 2 jobs to pay for private school. NEVER again will I allow one of my children to go to this sorry excuse for a school.
--Submitted by a parent

This school has so many issues its not even funny. FOr parents like me that are hands on, you would think that the teachers would love that. Some don't I guess that's because they don't want us as parents to see that they aren't teaching our kids anything. Nor are they doing their jobs as letting the parents know that their kids have a learning disability. But when you bring it to their attention you get this "We as teachers are not suppose to say anything to the parents on that matter. " This school sucks and this is our last year praise god.
--Submitted by a parent

Lets just put it this way. This School is SO BAD we are separatiing from my husband for his last year here and I am moving back to Jacksonville fl where we own a house and they can get back into a A rated school where the teachers enjoy there job not dread it.. I feel for some of the teachers at forrestal because there are few that are truly awesome and there are some that need to retire. It is sad that my kids have to leave there dad to get the education that they deserve.
--Submitted by a parent

I went to school here in the 70s and it is sad to see that nothing has changed. My father was in the Navy. We were transferred to Groton, Conn. I had to be moved back a grade because I was behind compared to the students there.

I am a military spouse and we had almost no other options here in Great Lakes for schools. North Chicago schools are even worse than Forrestal. We have been here for 3 years and every year we have problems with teachers not caring, silly rules that have nothing to do with education and a general all around bad attitudes from the staff (not to mention bullies). It is hard to get into this school for military because it is in military housing but not DOD so civilians have filled the schools up hoping to stay away from the far worse schools in the area. Honestly, your best bet if your coming to the area would be to try to get into Lake Forrest schools or just go for private schools if you can afford the tuition. (just remember that there is hardly any bus service)
--Submitted by a parent

My family moved here from Northern Virginia and went to one of the best in the state. We came to this school and were VERY disappointed. Teachers yelling at children, disorganization, and teacher child ratio is horrible. I now homeschool my child and will till we leave Great Lakes.
--Submitted by a parent

I have to agree with the lack of organization, my son started kindergarten yesterday as well and until I went into the office and personally asked to see it. Thankfully my sons teacher, Mrs Hardy seems to be a great teacher. I have volunteered to be a room mom, so I think that will allow me to be more involved and know what is going on. Its only the second day and my son is really enjoying himself. One of the other complaints I have is what seems to be a lack of supervision. I walked up early today to find some of the older kids (maybe 4th grade?) playing outside without a teacher. Also when the kids were being sent out of their classroom to get their backpacks, there was no one to make sure they went back into their classroom. So there were random kindergartners wandering the halls.
--Submitted by a parent