Information Guide

Our school strives to prepare students to successfully participate in the discoveries and challenges of the future with the foundations of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, cultural competency, and character education. The school is dedicated to cultivating the unique nature and potential of each student and is committed to building a learning community enhanced by successful and appropriate interactions and work with all people, in recognition and celebration of the diversity in our world. We provide a nurturing and caring environment strengthened by a low teacher-pupil ratio. The school utilizes a personal learning approach that incorporates individual attention, hands-on experiential learning, and a challenging and well-rounded curriculum.

Our approach to education is based on our belief that students must learn how to think analytically, solve problems, utilize their strengths, face challenges, make good decisions, and communicate effectively, preparing them to successfully live in an ever-changing and diverse society. We seek to move our students beyond tolerating people different from themselves to engaging all people as valuable members of a global society. Their future depends on our willingness to expose them to - and coach them through - the realities of what it means to be ethical, inclusive, and human in a competitive, conceptual, and technological age.

We make every effort to ensure that our academic program is of the highest quality. We hire the best teachers, adopt the best curricula, remain open to change, and hold our school to the highest academic standards. A true willingness to listen and an engagement in professional reflection inform our quest for continual improvement, relevance, and accountability.

2019-2020 School year:
579 students / 83 teachers

Preschool Program: Children must be 3 prior to September 1

Junior Kindergarten: Children must be 4 prior to September 1

Senior Kindergarten: Children must be 5 prior to September 1

Located in Chicago’s Old Town, our 80,000 sq. ft. facility includes a new addition housing our expanded Library with a separate Storytime Room and a fireplace, three science labs, an AV production studio, an IDEA Lab, a Nurse’s Office, and more. The IDEA Lab includes a laser cutter and engraver, eight 3D printers, one 3D scanner, two specialty programmable sewing machines and eighteen regular sewing machines, a 15 ft. x 6 ft. interactive digital display wall, and more. We have two rooftop playgrounds, an Early Childhood Tinker Space, and a gymnasium with an elevated indoor running track. The gymnasium includes full-size volleyball/basketball courts, a performance stage, professional lighting and audio/visual equipment, bleachers, locker rooms, and a kitchen. There are two art studios with a kiln, two music studios, an art gallery, and a cafeteria. Across the street, there is studio space for performing arts and gatherings. All classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboard technology and document cameras. Every child in Grades 1-8 is assigned a laptop or iPad computer. Early Childhood students have developmentally appropriate use of technology using iPads. The entire school has wireless technology.

Our Business Office and Advancement Office are housed in a separate building across the street from our school at 1402 N. North Park Avenue.

Location

The Catherine Cook School is located at 226 W. Schiller Street, on the block surrounded by Wieland, Schiller, and North Park, one block west of Wells in the heart of Old Town. The school is less than two miles from the Chicago Loop. Catherine Cook School is accessible by public transportation on the number 22 Clark bus, the number 36 Broadway bus, and the number 156 LaSalle bus. It is a short walk from the Brown Line Sedgwick 'L' stop and from the Clark/Division subway stop on the Red Line. map

Parking

Metered parking can be found on Wells Street. Private parking is available at the Pipers Alley complex north of the school on North Avenue, as well as in the Cobbler Square lot on the SW corner of North Park Avenue and Schiller Street. Both parking facilities are privately operated and charge fees. Drivers may obtain a reduced rate parking ticket from the school's Main Office for stays of two hours or less in the Cobbler Square lot. Please note that residential parking rules are strictly enforced in the neighborhood around the school.

The schedule choices for Preschool for the school year are five days a week and will be offered as follows:

Full Day Program (8:15 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.)
Morning Half-Day Program (8:15 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.)