McHenry High School District 156

Dear Warrior Family,

Welcome to the 2023-24 school year! I’m pleased to share with you that we are launching our comprehensive strategic planning process today with a community-wide survey to help us determine a shared vision and direction for our schools.

I’m inviting you to play an important role by filling out a quick online survey that should take no more than five minutes. Community input is crucial to our process because we view our community partnerships to be so valuable in delivering high-quality education. This is YOUR chance to help us prepare students for an ever-changing future.

The last few years have been busy and challenging as we worked to transform our academic spaces and athletic facilities, develop innovative course pathways and programs, and successfully transition to a more equitable freshman and upper campus model. The board of education has achieved this in a financially responsible and sustainable manner that will allow for continued investment in our students, staff, facilities, and programs in the future.

Therefore, this is a wonderful opportunity for us to see how we’re doing and set priorities to make sure our district stays at the forefront of learning and innovation well into the future. The link for the online survey is available on the strategic planning page of the district website. The survey is open until Sept. 22.

We are working with Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to gather data, analyze the results and help formulate the strategic plan to propel us forward. We hope to unveil a new strategic plan a year from now.

The plan will build on work conducted last year to develop a Portrait of a Graduate, which is our vision for the 21st century skills and character traits that students need to succeed beyond high school. This is an exciting time to be a Warrior. I hope you'll join me on this journey.

I wish you and your student great success throughout this 2023-24 school year. Thank you for your continued support and partnership as we work together to prepare our Warriors for successful futures.

Dr. Ryan McTague

Superintendent of Schools

McTagueRyan@dist156.org

Summer is typically a busy time for renovation projects at schools and district facilities, and this year was no different. With the exception of the new baseball field at Upper Campus, which just got underway, projects are complete and ready for the new school year.

Check out the video above to see all of the progress. The list below is all of the summer projects.

Freshman Campus:

• Roof overlays for the remainder of the FC roofs, which completes roofing work
• Remodel of Student Services area
  
• Cafeteria kitchen equipment replacement (various units)

Upper Campus:

• Culinary room remodel
• Cafeteria kitchen equipment replacement (various units)
• Varsity baseball field construction begins (completed in 2024). This new field will replace the varsity soccer field, which is now at McCracken.

McCracken Field:

• Construction of two new soccer fields in place of the existing practice field behind the home bleachers.
• Various site improvements including adding drainage and irrigation for the new soccer fields, new shot put and discus areas, and fencing work.