Last week, preschool students at Coal City Early Childhood Center participated in activities focused on friendship. Through stories, songs, and hands-on projects, the children learned about being good friends.

Students painted, danced, and played together while practicing sharing and taking turns. Each child also made a "friendship flower" to give to a classmate.

The students described friends as people who are kind, help others, take turns, and share. Mrs. Harseim emphasized the importance of friendship in preschool: "As Mrs. Harseim always says, the most important job in Pre-K is to be a good friend. And this week, the preschoolers truly blossomed," she shared.

Coal City Community Unit School District 1 includes schools serving Grundy and Will counties such as Coal City Early Childhood Center, Coal City Elementary School, Coal City High School, Coal City Intermediate School, and Coal City Middle School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). According to data from the Illinois State Board of Education, there are 153 teachers in the district with an average salary of $69,297; nearly 78 percent are women and no teacher has more than ten absences per year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). The student population is predominantly White at almost 87 percent; Hispanic students make up nearly 10 percent of enrollment (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In 2020, spending per student was $21,619 for a total expenditure of over $47 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).