The Waukegan Performing Arts Company, the K-8 theater program of District 60, will present its production of Mary Poppins Jr. later this month, according to an April 6 announcement. More than 50 students from eight elementary and four middle schools in Waukegan make up the cast and crew for the show.
The musical is set in England in 1910 and follows the Banks family as Mary Poppins arrives to bring order and adventure to their home. Performances are scheduled for Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m., with additional shows on Saturday, April 18 at both 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., all taking place at Cooke Magnet Elementary School located at 522 Belvidere Road.
Tickets are available for $5 during presale or $6 at the door; children under two years old can attend free of charge. Tickets may be purchased online or at the venue before each performance.
The Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 represents Lake County and includes a wide range of schools such as Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School, Carman-Buckner Elementary School, Daniel Webster Middle School, Miguel Juarez Middle School, Oakdale Elementary School, Robert E. Abbott Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Washington Elementary School, Waukegan High School among others according to Illinois Report Card. The district serves pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students and enrolled over fifteen thousand students during the last reported school year according to Illinois Report Card.
Demographically, District 60 is composed of approximately three percent White students, thirteen percent Black students, nearly eighty percent Hispanic students, and one percent Asian students according to Illinois Report Card. The district employs over one thousand teachers with an average salary above sixty-three thousand dollars; seventy-one percent are women while twenty-nine percent are men according to Illinois Report Card.
District data also shows that spending per student was more than twenty-three thousand dollars in recent years according to Illinois Report Card. However, chronic truancy remains a challenge: about twenty-one percent of enrolled students were identified as chronically truant—meaning they missed five percent or more school days without valid excuse—compared with a statewide average just under ten percent according to Illinois Report Card.
