Prospect School welcomed back its alumni on May 21, as the school held its inaugural Senior Sign Picture and Clap Out event for the Class of 2026. The event marked a milestone for Principal Kristin Cummings, as this group was her first fifth-grade graduating class at Prospect.
The gathering provided an opportunity for seniors to return to their elementary school before heading off to their high school graduation ceremony later that evening. Wearing college t-shirts and sweatshirts, the graduates began with a group photo at the Prospect School sign. They then lined up at the fifth-grade doorway, where they received red and white balloons. Families, former principal Anne Kryger, current students, staff, and former teachers assembled along the playground path to cheer on the seniors as they processed from the kindergarten doors around the playground.
After completing their walk through familiar halls and grounds, participants gathered on the blacktop for cookies and water. Teachers offered congratulations to their former students in what organizers described as a full-circle moment.
Hinsdale Community Consolidated School District 181 includes Prospect Elementary among several schools in DuPage and Cook counties; it serves grades pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade with an enrollment of 3,743 students during the 2019-2020 year according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The district spent $31,308 per student in 2020 with total expenditures reaching $117 million during that period according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
District data show that Hinsdale Community Consolidated School District 181 had four chronically truant students enrolled in 2020—a rate well below state averages—while employing over two hundred eighty teachers earning an average salary of $94,227; ninety percent are women according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Demographically, nearly seventy percent of district students are White while Asian students make up over fifteen percent according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
