Our District History

District 27 traces its roots back to the early 1850s and to a settler named Levi Kennicott.

Kennicott settled in a hickory grove in Northfield Township with his brothers in 1833. Levi Kennicott deeded a small part of land north of of what is now Dundee Road and east of what is now Sanders Road, for a school.

North Northfield Grove School District 3 opened for classes in 1853.

The school building was replaced in 1886 by a frame building with a brick foundation, an exterior woodshed and an outhouse. In 1901, the name of the District changed to Grove District No. Twenty-Seven.

In 1930-31, the school directors purchased a strip of land north of the school for $1,280. The turned the old one-room school building around, moved it away from Dundee Road, and added another room and basement. This building was used until 1959 for classes.

A referendum was held in October of 1950 asking residents permission to build a new school due to increasing enrollment. The new Grove School on Pfingsten Road opened in the spring of 1952.

Enrollment continued to skyrocket through the 1950s and the District Board of Education went to the residents eight times to help them pay for the two schools.

Faced with rising costs and more and more students to educate, the District took out an emergency loan from the Illinois School Building Commission in 1962 for a new school. Indian Ridge School opened to students in 1964 on property south of Walters Avenue and west of Landwehr Road.

In the span of one year, between 1965 and 1966, the number of school children in the District increased by 400. This necessitated the construction of a junior high school (Shabonee) in 1968, Hickory Point School in `1970 and finally Wood Oaks Junior High School in 1972.

Enrollment finally started to stabilize in the 1970s and actually drop in the 1980s. Indian Ridge was closed in 1982 and the building sold to the Northbrook Park District.

In April of 2008, the Board of Education made the difficult decision to close Grove School at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. Beginning in the 2011-2012 school year, the schools were configured:

  • Hickory Point School -- kindergarten through second grade;
  • Shabonee School -- third through fifth grades;
  • and Wood Oaks, sixth through eighth grades.

Renovations and additions were made to both Hickory Point and Shabonee schools to house the additional grades. Thus began yet another chapter in District 27's long history.

In May of 2023, an early childhood education program was launched at Hickory Point School to serve ages 3-5.

Levi Kennicott

Levi Kennicott

Kids in front of Grove School in 1898

Grove School in 1898

Grove graduates in 1914

Class of 1914, Grove School

1931 photo of kids in front of Grove

Grove School students in 1931

The front of Grove in the 1940s

The exterior of Grove School in the 1940s

Kids playing in snow in 1930s or 40s

Kids playing in the snow in the 1940s.

Classroom of students at Grove in 1940s

A classroom of students at Grove in the 1940s