Village has few options for education
First of all, I would like to say congrats to all the eighth-graders who are graduating and moving on to high school.
It is good to hear most of these kids probably grew up here in Forest Park and went to elementary school together and now are moving on to high school. The sad part about it is they don’t have much of an option as to what high school they’re going to attend, unless of course it is private and all over outside our district. It is sad to say we don’t have that great of an option to choose what high school to attend in the area without breaking your bank besides the Proviso Math and Science Academy and Proviso East. This is another issue to even go through.
It’s amazing how Forest Park is a blooming community with new condos/housing being built everywhere you look, but has anyone even thought of our children and the school system?
Imagine this: Forest Park only has two middle schools, St. Bernardine and Field Stevenson. Not everyone can afford private school and so most kids from five elementary schools in our community of course have no option but to attend the Field Stevenson Middle School.
Does anyone even thinking of maybe having another middle school or better yet a high school in Forest Park? Or are we just focusing mostly on building more condos in the area and competing with our neighbor, Oak Park? The good thing at least with our next door neighbor is they have more than one to choose from for middle schools and high schools.
Maybe this is something really worth discussing with the new school board leaders.
Joy Evans
Forest Park
Grateful committee
On behalf of the Picnic Committee, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chamber of Commerce, the village, park district and all Forest Park schools for their continued support in providing funding for a fun-filled day of activities for this year’s 34th Annual Bob Haeger All School Picnic.
The committee would like to thank the PTOs and PTAs of the public and private schools for their annual donations that help offset the costs associated with the picnic. We would also like to express our appreciation to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Post 7181 for their financial contribution. These donations, along with the chamber’s annual financial support and cooperation from Mother Nature in the weather department, helped make this year’s annual event a huge success.
A very special thank you to Ferrara Pan Candy Company, the Forest Park Community Education Council and Forest Park Main Street Redevelopment Association for their generous donations, which helped offset the cost of this year’s entertainment. All of the children who enjoyed the free pony rides can be thankful to these three special friends of the All School Picnic.
In addition we are grateful to Nadeau’s Ice Sculptures for their annual donation of two 300-pound blocks of ice used to ice down the 3,000 cans of soda, and Browning-Ferris Industries for their generous donation of the 20-yard roll-off dumpster that is used for cleanup.
We would also like to thank the police and fire departments for their continued cooperation and assistance, and also, all of the volunteers that helped in the food distribution, ticket sales, supervision, recreational activities and entertainment. They, along with the school teachers, are the backbone of this operation. Without that group of dedicated workers, an event of this size could not be accomplished.
Finally, our hat’s off to the village employees of the Public Works and Public Property departments. They, along with the crews from the park district and school district maintenance staffs, performed that often thankless job of picking up after others. Within an hour everything was put away and the park grounds were back in shape. The committee would like to thank everyone involved in any way for their continued support and cooperation.
Larry Piekarz and Beth Kovacic,
co-chairs, All School Picnic Committee
Forest Park
Free meal deserved
One can sympathize with Mr. Loftus (“Employee pelted with sandwich,” June 6) as there is nothing worse than getting the wrong order. I am sure that as it was a call in, there is a record of the order and it would be interesting to see if in fact no sprouts were requested. If so, at a minimum he should receive a free sub to compensate him for the personal suffering and time spent in court defending his culinary rights.
Richard Moorjani
Barbados, West Indies
Birthday wishes
Cory Sansone celebrated his 14th birthday June 5, his day was a bit overshadowed as big sisters Emmaly and Kathryn were celebrating high school and eighth-grade graduations … we love you Cory!
Terri Sansone
Forest Park
Renting the Roos
I was surprised to learn that the developer of the Roos had intended to make 50 percent of the units rental. On a number of occasions, local residents had asked for this information in public forums and had been told that the condo association would make this determination as part of the condo association bylaws. When did this change? If the number of rental units is always known before the development is approved, why have we residents been regularly denied this information when requesting it in public forums? For example, the same information was sought on the Altenheim development and the Taxman development on Madison Street.
Considering the fact that the developer originally proposed 50 percent rental in the Roos and is still holding it to 30 percent, it begs the question: What are the rental rates at the other developments in town. It would be most interesting to be given that information for Altenheim and Taxman, in particular. Is this another north of the Ike, south of the Ike issue?
Katherine Moran
Forest Park
