Original Research by School Decision on Big Hollow Primary School
Big Hollow Primary School serves pre-kindergarten through first grade in Ingleside, an unincorporated lakeside community in Grant Township between Fox Lake and Round Lake Heights. The school is part of Big Hollow School District 38, a small district serving a handful of nearby villages including Fox Lake, Round Lake, Lakemoor, and Volo.
The school enrolls about four hundred students across its three grades, with balanced representation across pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse. Close to one-third identify as Hispanic. About one-half identify as white. Asian students, students identifying as two or more races, and Black students each make up smaller but meaningful portions of enrollment. Demographic information on free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility and on students with individualized education plans or English learner status was not available in the data.
No state assessment data exists for this school because Illinois does not test students in these early grades at the state level. Parents seeking to understand academic performance in reading and math readiness will need to ask the school directly about classroom assessments, screening tools, or local progress measures.
Ingleside itself has a quiet, low-density character built around the Chain O'Lakes waterway. It lacks a traditional walkable downtown or commercial core; civic functions and schools operate as separated campuses. The community functions as a bedroom suburb, with residents commuting outward for work via the Ingleside Metra station on the Milwaukee District North Line or by car. Population has declined modestly over the past decade, and housing growth has been incremental rather than rapid, mixing older lake-home-era cottages with scattered new construction on small infill lots.
The housing market in the area has seen modest appreciation and a steady supply of homes on the market. The local median home value is in the mid-range for the county, and mortgage-carrying costs run at roughly one-and-one-half times the annual rent-equivalent, making the area moderately affordable relative to the national benchmark but somewhat pricier than the state average.
The district's school board made a noteworthy decision in late 2022 to draw on cash reserves rather than maximize the annual tax levy to cover a scheduled increase in debt payments on bonds issued to build a three-school campus on Nippersink Road. For families considering the property-tax environment, this suggests a board willing to manage levy growth despite campus construction obligations—a material factor for homeowners weighing long-term exposure.
Big Hollow Primary operates as a traditional public elementary school serving its core early-grades population. No information was available regarding classroom pedagogy, specialized programs, or staffing ratios. A parent interested in understanding teaching approaches, class sizes, or support services for students with additional needs would want to contact the school directly.
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