Hannah G Solomon Elementary School

Solomon is definitely a small, tight-knit school which I usually love, but the health environment feels pretty middle-of-the-road. On the plus side, the size means you aren't dealing with a massive enrollment, which helps with germs slightly, and the school does keep up with the basic CPS health screeners. However, I noticed the recent '5Essentials' data labeled the school as 'partially organized' in several areas, and honestly, you can feel that in the communication. When stuff like stomach bugs or strep is going around the classrooms, the heads-up to parents is pretty hit or miss. The building is older—standard North Park area architecture—so ventilation isn't exactly state-of-the-art. I've heard some other moms complain about the consistency of the wellness policies, and it feels like the school is just doing the bare minimum required by the district rather than really pushing for a 'wellness culture.' It’s not terrible, but it's not exactly going above and beyond to make sure the environment is the healthiest it could be for our kids.

Honestly, Solomon has been a pretty solid fit for my kid. Since it’s a smaller school, I feel like the staff actually knows who my daughter is when she's feeling under the weather. They’re super quick about calling if she has a sniffle or a scrape, and I appreciate that they aren't overly lax with the sick-child policy—it keeps the classroom bugs to a minimum. The building is older, but the custodial staff clearly works hard because it doesn't have that 'old school' germy smell, and they were really proactive with hand sanitizer and cleaning during the last flu spike. My only minor gripe is sometimes the communication about a bug going around the grade level comes a day or two later than I'd like, but overall, it's a very caring environment where wellness actually seems to matter.