A Chicago school serving the city’s South Side is unveiling a $10.5 million expansion designed to give hundreds of pupils dedicated spaces for art, music and science.
LEARN Hunter Perkins, a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade charter school in the Auburn Gresham neighbourhood, is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, September 29, to mark the completion of the project.
The school, at 1700 West 83rd Street, serves about 550 pupils. Until now, it has not had specialist classrooms for art or music, nor laboratories for practical science lessons.
The new facilities include those spaces, alongside additional classrooms intended to ease overcrowding. A new gymnasium has also been built and is expected eventually to be made available to the wider Auburn Gresham community.
Funding for the LEARN Hunter Perkins expansion
The project was funded by LEARN Charter School Network and the state of Illinois. State Senator Willie Preston secured $4.125 million towards the building extension in 2024, describing it as an investment in learning facilities for local children.
The school’s official website lists Cynthia Johnson as its principal and confirms that it offers education from kindergarten through eighth grade. It is a free public school with open enrolment.
LEARN Charter School Network said the campus ceremony would begin at 9am on Tuesday. The event is intended to recognise the completion of the extension and the contribution of those involved in funding and delivering it.
For pupils, the development will provide more room for lessons, practical experiments, creative work and physical activity, while giving the school additional capacity for its growing community.
