About Friends of Pritzker
The mission of Friends of Pritzker is to support the academic and extracurricular goals of A.N. Pritzker School. We achieve this mission through 1) fundraising and 2) building strategic partnerships in the community.
Friends of Pritzker School started as a question, then a conversation. An idea became an action. One voice became many voices. The voices of neighbors, friends, parents, community members, local business owners, and local politicians, agree that an excellent public school is critical to maintaining a neighborhood’s vitality, stability and growth. A school can echo the strength of a community and ensure its vibrancy.
Over the last several years, the A.N. Pritzker School has made incredible progress internally. Pritzker has a Regional Gifted Center attracting academically talented students from across Chicago, a Fine Arts program that becomes richer each year, an economically and racially diverse student body, and many and varied extracurricular activities. However, neighborhood enrollment in the school remains relatively low. Friends of Pritzker truly believes that harnessing and maintaining community excitement will make Pritzker one of the premier elementary schools in the City of Chicago.
One of Friends of Pritzker’s first goals is to increase enrollment among neighborhood families. The preschool years and Kindergarten are very important decision points for parents as they decide whether they want to stay in the city or move to the suburbs and whether to send their kids to public or private school. In an effort to attract neighborhood parents beginning when their children turn three, Pritzker opened a Preschool for All classroom in the fall of 2008 . Interest in the program has far exceeded expectations! Each fall, 40 students aged three and four that live in the surrounding neighborhoods begin preschool at Pritzker.
Officers
Kelly Greeby is the current leader of the pack. She has a daughter in the kindergarten and a son in the Pritzker Preschool right across the hall from his big sis. She has a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Albion College and an M.S. in Public Service/Public Policy from DePaul University. Prior to motherhood, she worked in not for profit organizations, as a Membership Director and a Development Director.
Jim Anderson is currently keeping the books in order for the organization. He has a daughter at Pritzker; and she is very excited about the fine arts curriculum! Jim has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the United States Military Academy, an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from CFA Institute. He is a financial consultant with DLC after 10 years of finance experience, with past lives in the military and as an information systems project manager.
Laura Urbaszewski is the scribe for the group. She has two children at Pritzker: a son in second grade, and a daughter in preschool who hopes to enter the kindergarten program next year. Laura has a Ph.D. in Russian language and literature from the University of Chicago and has taught college courses in Russian language, literature, and writing. She has also worked as a college admissions counselor and a private tutor, though her primary job right now is survival.
K.C. MacQueen is the founder and past president of Friends of Pritzker School. A former Chicago Public School teacher, she has a passion for public education. After teaching in CPS, she spent several years working in online education at the college level. She holds a degree in Elementary Education from Michigan State University and a Master’s degree in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University. When she is not mothering her twin boys, or getting used to her new home in Palo Alto, CA, she sleeps. Her smile, vision, and fun glasses will be missed; she will always be orange to us.About Pritzker
Pritzker School is both a neighborhood magnet-cluster school and a Regional Gifted Center. The school is located in the heart of Wicker Park @ 2009 W Schiller St, 60622. Pritzker is also proud to offer a Pre-K for all program.
For more details, please visit the Pritzker School website.
