Forest Park Elementary School first opened its doors in September of 1956. The original building provided for sixteen, K-6 classrooms, three being kindergarten sections, with a capacity of 600 students. This was an average class size of 32 students. The cost of the new school was $794,500.
In March of 1957, Forest Park Elementary School was the subject of an article in The Nation’s Schools, a magazine for educators. The article was titled, “School Born of Experience” and discussed the unique design of the school. Since that time Forest Park School has had two additions to the building. Four rooms were added to the south end. You can still see the outside red brick wall in rooms 107 and 104. There was a second addition to the building on the north end. Four rooms were added to form a T-shape.
Mr. Taylor Schmit is the current principal at Forest Park Elementary School. Ronald C. Jensen was appointed the school’s first principal and served until his retirement in July of 1979. At that time, Stephen Relich was named the school’s second principal and served until August of 1987. Mr. Relich transferred to Harvey School. Richard B. Guttormsen was the next principal and served until his retirement in July of 1996. He was followed by Ronald Soulek. Mr. Soulek transferred to the Kenosha School of Languages in July of 1999. Mr. Gary Gayan retired in June of 2011. Luanne Rohde was appointed in June of 2011 and became the KUSD Early Education Director in July of 2016. Mrs. Jody Cascio became the principal in 2016 and then became the KUSD Coordinator of Student Learning in 2021.
