Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 announced on Apr. 17 that tickets for Friday’s performance of Mary Poppins Jr. are sold out, but two additional shows will take place on Saturday at Cooke Magnet Elementary, located at 522 Belvidere Road. The production is presented by the district’s K–8 theater program, the Waukegan Performing Arts Company (Wauk-PAC), and features more than 50 students from eight elementary and four middle schools.
The event highlights the involvement of a wide range of students in performing arts across the district and offers families an opportunity to see local talent on stage. Tickets for Saturday’s shows are available for $5 in advance or $6 at the door, with children under two admitted free.
The school district represents Lake County and includes Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School among others, as detailed by the Illinois Report Card. Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 serves grades pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade and enrolled over 15,000 students during the 2019-2020 school year according to the same source.
Demographically, the student body is composed of approximately 79.5 percent Hispanic students, with Black students making up about 13 percent, White students about three percent, and Asian students just over one percent according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The district employed more than a thousand teachers earning an average salary of $63,524 before pension contributions; most teachers are women and none had more than ten absences in a school year as reported by state data.
Financially, Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 spent $23,429 per student in fiscal year 2020 for a total expenditure exceeding $359 million according to official figures. Chronic truancy remains a challenge: during the same period there were over three thousand chronically truant students—defined as those missing five percent or more of required days without valid excuse—representing a rate significantly higher than state averages as indicated by state records.
With continued investment in both academics and extracurricular activities such as theater productions like Mary Poppins Jr., district officials aim to provide diverse opportunities for student engagement.
