“Excellence. Faith. Service.” Those are the values St. Luke School in River Forest is instilling in their students with the help of great educators and a strong community, some who were recently honored by the state board of education.
At St. Luke, it is a family affair as Mary Anne Gleason, Amy Gleason, and Katie van Meurs were all recognized and selected for the Award of Special Recognition from the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 Those Who Excel Awards.
Nominated together, the group is composed of a mother and her two daughters who nominators said represented all the qualities that St. Luke not only believes in, but also works hard to instill in their Catholic community.
The nomination was spearheaded by St. Luke’s Family School Association, a parent organization at the school, said principal Andrew DiMarco, who gave the green light on whom they chose to nominate.
“When we look at the description of the Those Who Excel Award, and [being] all about community, we thought for the first go around we wanted to try to get a team together to nominate,” DiMarco said.
Going the team route put the Gleason family as potential nominees for what they do both inside the school building and outside in the community.
The Those Who Excel Awards has been sponsored by ISBE since the 1970 to recognize educators who are making significant contributions in both public and private elementary and secondary schools across the state.
One of three award categories under the Those Who Excel Awards, the Award of Special Recognition is given to educators who “have connected with their school community and made a positive impact.”
Mary Anne Gleason, middle school faculty member at St. Luke School, began her education career at Loyola University. After she married her husband Bill Gleason, the couple began growing their family and knew they wanted their children to attend St. Luke School, Bill’s alma mater.
After volunteering at St. Luke for a few years, Mary Anne said she decided to pursue a career in education and returned to Dominican University in River Forest to receive her master’s in teaching degree.
“It has just been a community that has always been very welcoming to me and my family,” Mary Anne said.
Mary Anne began teaching at St. Luke as a substitute teacher for a teacher who was on maternity leave and was hired full-time after that. She became a fifth-grade teacher.
For her, St. Luke has always been a place of happy memories for her family and her seven children, who all went to St. Luke.
“By the time I started teaching at St. Luke, many of my children had already graduated from college,” she said. “I saw the friendships they made here. They had developed a lot of great qualities in grade school, and I loved the young adults that they were. I really think so much of that was fostered at St. Luke.”
The ability to see her students through graduation and the wonderful celebrations and traditions they get to be a part of before heading out to high school is a huge blessing for Mary Anne, who said it was very special to be part of those moments in students’ lives.
When it came to the nomination, Mary Anne said the trio did not know they were nominated until they were notified by their principals that they had won.
“There is something so gratifying about being recognized as a mom with two of her daughters,” she said.
Amy Gleason, learning resource specialist, said St. Luke was always her dream school to teach at from a young age.
“I had a great time at St. Luke’s, I have no bad memories from it,” Amy Gleason said. “St. Luke has given me so much and that I wanted to give back. I wanted to teach here, and I had my heart set on it.”
Amy graduated from Loyola Chicago with an undergraduate degree in elementary education and received her master’s in special education with an endorsement as a learning behavior specialist from Dominican University in 2017.
Returning to St. Luke as a teacher, Amy said she was honored to be teaching alongside a few of her favorite former teachers.
“So many of our teachers have stuck around for so long that you really form a bond with them,” Amy said.
And that loyalty extends to families who have belonged to the community for generations, which Amy gets to witness firsthand when she greets her old classmates as they drop off their kids at school in the mornings.
“The parents that I saw when I was a student here, they are still back at St. Lukes coming back for grandparents’ day, doing pick-up and drop-off,” Amy said. “Our sense of community is so wonderful.”
Her sister Katie van Meurs, a parent volunteer at the school, joined in on that sentiment.
“I am so humbled because we were nominated by other parents who we work alongside with,” van Meurs said.
As a volunteer, van Meurs is the fifth-grade girls volleyball coach and the secretary of the school board of education.
She is also a room coordinator, helping with different social events throughout the school.
While a lot of her volunteering involved more administrative duties, coaching students has been a highlight for van Meurs.
Being around family members is also a big bonus, said van Meurs.
As the family continues to be part of the St. Luke community, Mary Anne Gleason said she is thankful to be able to see her children and her grandchildren experience the joys of St. Luke.
“It’s a family thing,” she said. “I love our community here and I love that we are all able to be part of it and be part of it together.”