The Oak Park Education Foundation will be able to run the majority of their programs for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are essentially up and running and in full mode of planning to start the fall,” said Executive Director at the Oak Park Education Foundation Latonia Baker.
Baker said in the few years following the pandemic, the foundation worked with local schools and artists to try to have as many programs up and running, but like with almost everything else, complications from the pandemic made it harder to bring in outside help, which limited some programs.
But she said they are looking forward to having a full schedule again.
The foundation is a local nonprofit organization that works with the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 to help provide year-round activities in the STEAM and STEM realm for students K-8.
Baker said it was their mission to bring hands-on-STEAM programs to children in D97.
“We want to help them find a lifelong love of learning in fun innovative projects,” she said.
While most of the programming is free throughout the year at the D97 schools, the foundation also runs a summer BASE Camp, open to any student from any school to help “build a summer education.” The camp offers various activities including Summer of Sweets, where campers look at the science behind sugar while they make candy, biking adventures through Thatcher Woods and experiment stations amongst other activities.
Adam Bautista, a second-grade teacher at Irving Elementary School, helps run the BASE camp during the summer.
“It is not like summer school, where it’s a recommended curriculum. They allow us to create our own programs,” he said. “It’s really cool that they give us the creativity.”
Bautista has created a CSI class, as well as a Hot Wheels class, both of which he said are popular with campers.
“We try to do programs that support the district and the teachers throughout the year,” Baker said.
Baker said the foundation will be leaning into STEM because they saw a greater interest toward in those areas. She added that they received a grant from the Donnelly foundation to bring coding and robotics classes to elementary school kids from underrepresented populations.
About 50% of students participating in the stem-focused coding program at Beye Elementary School are on scholarship.
Arts programs will continue, she said.
As the district works through its “Portrait of an 8th Grade Graduate,” Baker said the foundation will be working to align with those efforts.
Eboney Lofton, the chief learning innovation officer at D97, said the foundation has been a “vital partner in creating innovative, engaging learning opportunities both in and out of D97 classrooms.”
The foundation will be hosting its annual Bingo Bash fundraiser to bolster its programming support. The 2024 Staszak Educator of the Year, D97 multilingual teacher Jennifer Jaros from Holmes Elementary also will be honored at the event.
The Bingo Fundraiser will be held on Friday, May 10 at the Nineteenth Century Club. Tickets can be bought online.
