The question of how to help and support area school kids facing drug or alcohol pressures—beyond the simple, but perhaps inadequate, directive to “just say no”—is an important question.
Posted inFeatures
Memories of Sunday afternoons
Before we moved to Oak Park in 1948, we lived on East Walton Street in Chicago. Practically every Sunday afternoon, my dad and I would walk south on Michigan Avenue or west on Chicago Avenue and north on Rush Street to Elm Street. Sometimes we would visit my grandparents at 22 E. Elm.
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
Thankful for Oak Park’s new Walgreens
In an era of vitriol and anger with civic activity, the work of the Madison Street Coalition, a group of volunteers who have taken the task of helping guide the future of this section of Oak Park upon themselves, deserves a note of positive recognition.
Posted inObituaries
Joseph Gullo, 86, teacher, guidance counselor, musician, Realtor
Joseph S. Gullo, 86, a longtime resident of Oak Park, died on Nov. 24, 2010. Born in 1924, he was a teacher, counselor and administrator of guidance programs in the Chicago public schools. He loved helping young people set and attain career goals.
Posted inOpinion
To state legislators: Reform pensions
I am writing to you to address the issue of public safety pension reform in the upcoming veto session. Please immediately consider these pension reforms, as they are causing municipalities serious budget problems. From one elected official to another, I need your help in dealing with our fiscal pension problem.
Posted inObituaries
Mary Puccinelli, 80, Nurse/midwife
Mary Philomena Puccinelli, 80, of Oak Park, died on Nov. 24, 2010 in the presence of her children. Born in Ireland and educated in a one-room schoolhouse in County Wexford, she became a midwife in England and a nurse in America, where she delivered hundreds of babies and shared her boundless love with everyone lucky enough to have met her.
Posted inOpinion
Taking another look at the achievement gap at OPRF
Over the past three years, after talking to hundreds of teachers and parents, I have come to a conclusion about the achievement gap, which differs from the one that I formed during my 16-year teaching career at Oak Park and River Forest High School. I believed that many black students were treated differently as a group because of an institutionalized system of lower expectations.
Posted inOpinion
Closed campus at OPRF worth a look
In 1996-97 we went to the high school board and asked them to keep students in the building at lunch time. We proposed that all freshmen and sophomore students would have a “closed” campus, and that juniors and seniors would earn the privilege of leaving the building by (1) having no serious disciplinary problems, (2) a GPA of C or better, (3) parental permission , and (4) a limited number of absences after lunch period.
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
The Nossaman Chronicles shrouded in mystery
Why won’t the village release the Nossaman reports [In tight budget, more trustees question Ike lobbyist spending, News, Nov. 10]? We may never know. But let’s speculate, shall we? Seems like fair game to me. I’ll go first.
Posted inSports
OPRF girls basketball goes 2-3 at Marist
The OPRF girls basketball team went 2-3 at the Marist Thanksgiving Tournament last week. The Huskies (2-5 overall) defeated TF North 50-42 and Stagg 60-45, but fell to Marist, 56-42, Homewood Flossmoor, 53-50, and St. Ignatius, 50-42.