Morton RGC

[HariG]

Hi,
Any thoughts/Pros/cons on Morton RGC for incoming kindergartener? Are there any extras like music/art/sport/language? Do you like the aftercare?

[HariG]

Feel free to opine about relevant topics including academics, safety, parents engagement, and anything else of interest.

[HP]

We accepted Morton for Kinder, so everything we know comes from tours and current parents, but everyone I’ve spoken to with a child currently enrolled in Morton’s RGC has had positive things to say about the program. In particular, people have raved about the Kinder teacher. At the open house, they mentioned they have both art and music. I think music is new, and that it may be offered in partnership with Music House. Their foreign language offering is Spanish. They have a soccer field and one of the current parents at the open house mentioned an after school soccer program that they seemed very happy with. The aftercare program costs about half what we’re currently paying at a different northside SEES. Here is a link to the presentation they shared after a tour I took in the fall: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pezmFRI7d-_3YX6RriFJrGFpVadxcZuxnaASCMKahCs/edit?usp=sharing.

[HariG]

Thanks HP. We accepted the offer for kindergarten

[Skyler]

Hi @HariG,
How has your experience been with Morton? My son was accepted into 1st grade. I would love to hear from parents like you with kiddos attending the school.

[HariG]

I am pasting random replies from this site to keep all thoughts about Morton in one place –

06/05/2025 at 8:36 pm#20345REPLY
JC
Guest
Hello @BA – firstly congratulations on you child’s SEES offer! We had an offer from Morton. We did a tour which was well organized and great. I know a family who is at Morton and has raved about the program and the KG teacher. One day we went to the playground, post school and talked to parents in of kids in RGC program and they also were VERY happy with the program. The soccer field and their playground are indeed very nice. The RGC coordinator is an ex-SN teacher and I found the program structure very similar to SN. i don’t have report cards of Morton RGC but based on what my friend said, some kids are learning 2 grades above. So clearly the RGC program is academically strong.

Having said that, we still let the offer pass due to (1) logistics, (2) it not being an established program YET

When I compared it to our magnet school offer, I felt it would be a better fit for my child. Since Morton is a developing RGC program, it doesn’t offer things like this YET – library time, talent show, book fair, larger scale fundraising activities, PTO activities, etc. The RGC coordinator recognized these items will need some time to be incorporated. The positive though is that they plan to do it and will come with time.

[HariG]

Adding more comments to keep all Morton related stuff in one place
HP
Guest
Our oldest was offered Pritzker for PreK shortly after the pandemic hit. We ended up withdrawing, mainly for logistical reasons, but also because we were very unimpressed by the school’s communication. I distinctly remember asking what options there were for working parents given the 9am start time and being treated like this was an absurd question. It eventually became clear that before care programming was up in the air due to the pandemic, which is understandable, but I’m not sure why I had to be chastised for asking about it. I also went to their open house this fall and found it absolutely chaotic. It was by far the least impressive school tour I’ve ever experienced. I’m acquainted with a few families and their feedback (bad for diverse learners, poor communication) has reinforced my perception that it’s probably not the best option out there.

We’re located about the same distance from Morton as we are from Pritzker and were really impressed after their tour, so although it’s less established and in a less desirable area, we felt it was a stronger choice. We also ended up getting offered Morton, so I may be biased, but I would recommend giving them a look if you have misgivings about Pritzker. Given their lower cut score, it could be a possible alternative option if you’re up for trying the waitlist.
04/12/2025 at 11:13 am#19597REPLY
EC
Guest
We are considering Morton for our rising 2nd grader but are interested in the community factor. Have you found that the parents are involved and kids see each other outside of school? I know it varies from class to class but wasn’t sure how spread out people are throughout the city. We have heard great things about the principal and were impressed on our tour but community is an important factor for us.
04/12/2025 at 12:30 pm#19604REPLY
HP
Guest
Our offer is for Kinder, so not a lot of insight on the community yet unfortunately, but I agree that the principal seems great, as does the RGC coordinator. I appreciate that their program seems to be coherent and intentional, and I love that one of their specials is “genius hour”. I think I am concerned that other families may be basing their decisions on school reputations without giving the school a good look, as I know from the class sizes they shared during their fall tour that they have not filled all their seats in the past. We are going to wait until after the 4/23 open house to accept, as right now our main fear is what if they end up with a class size of 10? 15? Our child is very social. But as I see others in our circle tending to be more interested in Pritzker/Bell or SW/SN (even through I hear complaints about Pritzker and SW), now that we have a Morton offer, I am hoping others will give the program a look and see what we see so that we end up being able to be a part of a growing, viable program.

To go back to your original question, since that went on a tangent, the RGC coordinator did address the community aspect some on the fall tour we took. The way they put it is that they have seen a divide between the way RGC parents want to engage vs the neighborhood families, but the RGC parent involvement is strong, and the school is actively working to bridge the gap and build a more connected and engaged school community. They seem to have a lot of activities and events if you look at their calendar, which seems encouraging.
04/20/2025 at 9:14 pm#19854REPLY
AT
Guest
My youngest is at Morton and we love it there. We’re considering sending our oldest there. What grade is your Morton student going into?

[HariG]

Pasting some more Morton related posts

06/18/2025 at 11:51 am#20427REPLY
CR
Guest
After declining offers individually for each twin, we finally received simultaneous offers yesterday for both for Morton RGC. What a process.

Had such a great conversation with the RGC coordinator and feel like it’s going to be a great fit for both kids so we are going to accept! Would love to get in touch with any other Morton Kinder families ahead of the year. We will be commuting from the north side.

If anyone is curious and looking for info about the SEES process for twins, I’m going to put what the process looked like for us because I struggled to find good info: the twins had to get in individually based on score which is daunting, and the commute was too hard to take one but not the other. So we declined an offer during the first round on the waitlist and did not re add. We waited for the twin with the slightly lower score to receive an offer (which we didn’t know would come, and made peace with that.) We then declined that offer and readded both to the list immediately, and shortly after their waitlist numbers were updated to #1 and #2, and then they both received offers together. We took a big gamble waiting on a simultaneous offer, but also felt comfortable challenging them at home and the differentiation ability/accceleration option at the magnet we’d already lottered into.

[CR]

Dropping some info from when I spoke with RGC coordinator last week: my twins make kinder class of 21 so far.

Kindergarten gets through half of first grade curriculum.

RGC Kindergarteners join general ed kinder for essentials classes and lunch/recess. Both general ed and RGC kids are divided into two groups , elephants and piggies, and attend these things with their respective groups.

Essentials are for 1h each day and they rotate on a four day schedule, so easy week they get one special twice.

There is talk that they will be able to get bussing, but didn’t have much info yet, but can get you the paperwork for that.

[Chi mom 20]

Thanks for compiling this all in one place! Our child got an offer to Morton for Kinder and am looking to hear other’s experience.

[Dadxyz]

Hi all, my child got into the kindergarten RGC program. There’s not a lot of reviews / perspectives on Morton yet. Wondering if folks would jump in to offer an updated pov on the latest school year.

[Dadxyz]

Hi all, my child got into the kindergarten RGC program. There’s not a lot of reviews / perspectives on Morton yet. Wondering if folks would jump in to offer an updated pov on the latest school year.

[Dadxyz]

Hi all, my child got into the kindergarten RGC program. There’s not a lot of reviews / perspectives on Morton yet. Wondering if folks would jump in to offer an updated pov on the latest school year.

[Jay]

@dadxyz @Chi mom 20 + anyone going to Morton RGC’s open house tomorrow, April 1st? My son received an offer for the 1st grade, and we plan to attend to ask questions!

[Author]

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