James Russell Lowell Elementary School

Honestly, I’m pretty stressed out with the health situation at Lowell. We recently got a heads-up that not all the classrooms even have air purifiers, which is wild considering how old the building feels and how much stuff is always going around. It’s hard to feel good about sending your kid into a room with potentially poor ventilation during flu season. The GreatSchools ratings are already pretty low, and you can see it in how things are run—it feels like the school is constantly playing catch-up with maintenance and basic wellness. Communication about sick kids is spotty at best, and the overall vibe is just that they’re under-resourced and struggling to keep the environment actually clean and healthy for the kids.

My kids have been at Lowell for a few years now, and I’ve been pretty happy with how they handle the 'sick season' stuff. The school is an older building in Humboldt Park, so I worry about dust sometimes, but honestly, the classrooms always look clean when I drop off. They’re super strict about the fever-free rule, which is a bit of a pain when you have to miss work, but it definitely keeps the stomach bugs from spreading through the whole class every month. Communication from the nurse's office is usually pretty fast if someone gets a bump on the playground or starts feeling under the weather.