COVER STORY | Naperville Mom & Elementary School Principal, Sarah Nowak Shares Her Summer 2025 Bucket List

Sarah Nowak of Naperville & Her Daughters Shares Her Summer 2025 Bucket List

NAPERVILLE–Meet Sarah—a proud Naperville native who, after a few years in Oswego, returned home in 2013 to raise her family! She and her husband Dan (also a Naperville original!) have been married for 18 years and have two amazing daughters: Avery (15) and Payton (14). Their family also includes two adorable pups—Addison Mae the spunky Jack Russell mix and Stella Grace the lovable yellow lab.

By day, Sarah is the enthusiastic and dedicated principal of Welch Elementary in Indian Prairie School District 204. She leads a vibrant school community of around 600 students and nearly 100 staff. Whether she’s in classrooms, on the playground, or teaming up with teachers, her mission is clear: help everyone feel happy, safe, and a little better each day.

Sarah started her career in middle school education and loved it—but now she’s all in on elementary life. Watching kids grow from shy kindergarteners to confident fifth graders is one of her favorite parts of the job. No two days are ever the same, which keeps things exciting!

Outside of school, life is a whirlwind of softball, dance, church, and family time. She’s loyal, sincere, hardworking—and always cheering from the sidelines!

If your family had a report card, what subject would each of you be getting an A+ in right now?

Right now I think we are all getting an A+ in multitasking! May is no joke with softball games, dance rehearsals, work and events at the schools, finals, end of the year events, and then just all of the regular things that need to be done - cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, meal prep, etc.... The days are CRAZY but we are all crushing it, doing the best we can and still finding time to spend a few minutes together at the dinner table...even if that is at 8:00 some nights!

If your life had a soundtrack or song title right now, what would be the title of the track/song playing during your morning routine with the kids?

About Damn Time by Lizzo or You're the Best by Joe Esposito- we also LOVE Chappell Roan (we saw her this fall in Council Bluffs, IA as a family, and it was amazing!)

Sarah Shared Her Summer 2025

Top 6 Sunny Days Must Do Bucket List

1.  Visit South Haven, Michigan with friends - we have gone the past several years and adore it!

2.  Get to as many Cubs games as we can! We have a share of season tickets and are huge fans! We even got engaged at Wrigley

3.  Spend time in our yard; I love to garden and have been working since we moved in to transform our yard into a bit of a retreat

4.  Get to as many restaurants in Downtown Naperville as possible - my girls FAVORITE type of day is shopping in dt Naperville and grabbing lunch or a coffee! I imagine we will spend MANY days there!

5.  Go to dance recitals and softball games to cheer on my girls!

6.  Looking forward to a slower pace and having breakfast together, lazy mornings, and lots of pool/reading/chill time!

-Kristen Kucharski

Photos by Ruta Drulia