The River Forest School District 90 community will be celebrating large this Sunday as Roosevelt Middle School turns 100 years old.
The bash will be held Sunday, May 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will include an open house, displays of historic photos and live music.
Construction began for the middle school in November 1923, with a cornerstone laid at the corner of Oak and Jackson. The school opened in 1924, serving grades K-5 and 8 before becoming junior high, and then a 5th through 8th grade middle school in 1979.
When it opened, Roosevelt had eight classrooms, Memorial Hall – which is now the old gym – a superintendent’s office, library, kitchen, teacher’s restrooms, and student washrooms, said Stephanie Rath, director of communications and community relations for D90.
The school also employed 12 teachers; one for each kindergarten to seventh grade class and four for eighth grade.
Today, according to the Illinois Report Card, the school has 672 students.
Roosevelt also has 71 teachers with a total staff of 104, including aides, techs, custodians, and other support staff.
Margaret Schulz-Tafilaw, 81, is a Roosevelt graduate of the class of 1957.
After moving to River Forest, Schulz-Tafilaw attended Roosevelt from fourth to eighth grade.
“It must have been pretty good, because I really liked my fourth, fifth and sixth grade teachers and I decided at the end of sixth grade that I wanted to become a teacher,” Schulz-Tafilaw said.
Schulz-Tafilaw has been a substitute teacher at Roosevelt since her son was in eighth grade.
She still subs at the school.
Being at the school for over “half her life,” Schulz-Tafilaw said she recalls participating in the very first school play ever produced, “The Wizard of Oz,” in the new auditorium when she was in seventh grade.
Still an active member of the Roosevelt community, she said she has been able to see things come “full circle.”
“The kids in Roosevelt in the eighth grade are doing stuff that I did as a junior in high school,” she said. “It is really advanced if you compare it to years going back.”
Harrison “Sonny” Mann, a math teacher at Roosevelt, has also spent a lot of his life at the school, being part of the 1993 graduating class. He has been teaching at Roosevelt for 18 years.
For him, Roosevelt has always been a place he looked forward to attending, whether as a student or as a teacher.
“Many teachers I had during my time there are the reason why I became a teacher,” Mann said.
Part of the reason Mann loves teaching at the middle school: the involvement of the parents.
“It makes the world of a difference having partners and allies at home on this journey with us” he said. “I know not every district is like that. That was a huge reason why I wanted to come back to Roosevelt.”
Mann also said he appreciates the diversity found within the community and the halls of the school, he said.
“This is a place that welcomes people for who they are,” Mann said. “From what I have gathered here, it is an inclusive community.”
Roosevelt is also a source of pride for the community, said Mann.
Part of that pride comes from the generations of families who have attended the middle school, said principal Larry Garstki, who has been at the school for 23 years.
“So many families here have grandparents and even great grandparents who have gone through Roosevelt and to look at schools is to look at society and societal changes,” Mann said. “Roosevelt school is a really special one because it is kinda self-contained in our small community.”
The school has also been a “time capsule” for change, he said.
While still housed in the original building, the school has seen renovations both in the interior and exterior to keep up with growing population as well as the needs of students.
Those changes have also been academically as well as societal, as in-classroom devices have transitioned over the years to personal tablets. Roosevelt has been keeping up with the times while preserving its small community feel.
“It’s the same auditorium, it’s the same gym, that is really cool,” Garstki said.