Prairie Ridge High School, the newest of District 155’s four high schools, has a declining student population, the data shows. As of 2015, according to the District 155 website, PR has a student population of 1,477.

According to a document sent to me by Shannon Mortimer, the District 155 Director of Communications, in the 2006-2007 school year, Prairie Ridge had a student population of 1,738.

While this change may seem insignificant, it is a large change from earlier in PR’s history. When Prairie Ridge first opened in 1997, approximately 1,061 students attended. The student population quickly increased, going up by almost 70% in the next 9 years, mirroring the strong population growth in the area before the recession.

According the PR Social Studies teacher Joseph Terhaar, “There were even [serious] talks … of adding on to Prairie Ridge” during those years, as the student population was quickly approaching the maximum capacity of the school, which is around 1,800 students.

However, due to the Great Recession and the depressed housing market that started in late 2007, that population growth has stopped. Similar to the flatlining population of Crystal Lake, PR has seen a population decline of about 300 students, ending any talk or rumor of expanding the school. According to Mr. Terhaar, a change in the boundary between Prairie Ridge and Cary-Grove in the 2011-2012 school year further caused PR’s student population to decline.

There have been similar trends for the other schools in District 155, whose populations have tapered and even declined since the recession, after experiencing strong growth during the population boom during the prior years.

Will the student population of PR and the other District 155 high schools continue to flatten and decline, or will we regain the massive growth that the schools saw a few years ago?

According to Mr. Terhaar, the student population decline is only temporary. “History shows that the housing market will come back and so will Crystal Lake, Cary, and McHenry County, for that matter. For this reason I think the bottom is here or is near as far as the population decrease is concerned. All things considered, Crystal Lake and D155 have weathered the storm very well.”