Classes begin for Elgin District U-46.
With the new school year comes new changes for the state's second largest school district. Elgin's U-46 starting off with brand new schedules and classrooms at several buildings.
The flag was raised for the first time in nearly 20 years at Illinois Park Elementary School.
"It's the first day and I'm excited to make new friends. And some of my friends are coming here too," third grader Isaiah Souders said.
It previously served only as an early childhood center. Now, it is accepting students up to fifth grade.
"My kids came here for preschool," parent Melissa Rapp said. "So I'm excited for them to be back where they started, and just for all the new beginnings that there are to come."
"We're staying with the times and we are doing what's best for our students and making those adjustments where we need to," Illinois Park Elementary School Principal Cody Papp said. "Definitely a lot of changes this year, but I think the goal is to get students closer to their homes in their own communities."
Classrooms have been reconfigured and common areas refreshed. Just one of the many changes within the massive school district.
"Probably the biggest change in our school district is we've moved all of our sixth graders out of the elementary schools into the middle school schools, which created quite a shift," School District U-46 Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm said.
With that - came large scale construction projects at Kenyon Woods and Kimball Middle Schools to accommodate the extra grade level.
"It provides a lot of opportunities for our sixth graders to participate in extracurricular activities, to take elective courses, a lot of things that they did not have available inside elementary schools," Lindholm said.
Over at Larkin High School, students will soon have an athletic field of their own. Band performer Joey Akemann is pumped about the opportunity.
"It is so much better," Akemann said. "We've already seen and realized that we can do so much more with our performance. We have a pit ensemble in the front so it's even better."
In the finishing touches of construction, home games will now be held at the Royals Athletic Complex after decades of playing at Memorial Stadium on Elgin High School's campus.
"We would have to get bussed right before the football games and bus ourselves all the way to Elgin and then set up there and tear it all down and come back that night. It really wasn't great because we would get home at 10 tonight," Akemann said.
There are also more preschool classrooms across the district. Now available at 26 schools this year, compared to 15 buildings last year.