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Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Oak Park and River Forest High School receiving $3.5 grant for HVAC system
Oak Park and River Forest High School is getting a $3.5 million state grant to help pay for the geothermal heating and cooling system that will regulate temperatures in the new portion of the school that is being built to replace the school's southeast corner that has been demolished. The grant has been in the works since the spending authority was approved last year but the money, which comes from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Opportunity's Build Illinois capital projects fund, was formally released by the Illinois General Assembly last month as part of the budget that was approved by state lawmakers at the end of May. 'I was happy to support the high school's request that the state play a part in what is a sweeping project to build a modern, environmentally and fiscally responsible school facility that will serve students and the community for years to come,' State Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said in a prepared statement. The construction project is known as Project 2. OPRF can use the money for any part of Project 2 but Heidi Ruehle, the executive director of the Imagine Foundation, said that the intent is to use the money to pay a portion of the approximately $12.5 million cost of geothermal work. The geothermal work is budgeted separately from Project 2, which is expected to cost nearly $102 million. 'It's not restricted to geothermal but it's expected to be used for green energy,' Ruehle said. 'Of course geothermal falls underneath that umbrella but there are other aspects to this project that do as well.' The new construction will include a new swimming pool, a new third floor gym, and a host of other additions and improvements. The Imagine Foundation, a nonprofit fundraising foundation dedicated to raising money to support Project 2, did most of the leg work in securing the grant but brought in OPRF officials to make the formal application. Ruehle said that the Imagine Foundation, then led by former executive director Lynn Kamenitsa, first reached out to Harmon's office in 2023 after the funding for Project 2 was approved. Harmon's office helped with the grant application process and connected the Imagine Foundation and OPRF staff with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. 'We just needed to understand how this could come together and they just kind of walked us through that process,' Ruehle said. The Imagine Foundation has committed to raising at least $12.5 million, and hopes to raise $15 million, to help pay for Project 2. It has already given $2 million to OPRF and plans to hand over another $1 million check to OPRF at the June 12 school board meeting. Ruehle said that since the Imagine Foundation did much of the work of securing the $3.5 million state grant it will count the $3.5 million in state money towards what the foundation has committed to raise. 'Because Imagine took the lead on this and it was part of our fundraising efforts,' Ruehle said. While focusing on private donations Ruehle said that the Imagine Foundation will continue to seek out government and other grants. 'We don't have any other major grants on the horizon but we're certainly hoping that they're out there,' Ruehle said. Although the $3.5 million state grant was first authorized last year the Imagine Foundation did not want to publicize the grant until it was certain that the grant would be released as part of this year's budget bill. 'We wanted to make sure the money was in hand or guaranteed before any information was put out there which we agreed on with D200 and Harmon's office,' Ruehle said. OPRF District 200 Superintendent Greg Johnson thanked Harmon and the Imagine Foundation for their help in securing the state grant. 'We are grateful to the OPRFHS Imagine Foundation and our local elected representatives for their assistance in securing state funding to help D200 build better educational facilities for our students,' Johnson said in a news release issued by OPRF. 'By supporting our investment in geothermal for Project 2, this grant helps us take a big step toward meeting our District's very ambitious sustainability goals, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100% of 2012 levels by 2050.' While Harmon helped get $3.5 million for OPRF, that amount pales in comparison to the $40 million state grant that is going to Proviso West High School, the alma mater of Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, to build a sports complex. Before being elected as a state representative in 2012 Welch had served as president of Proviso Township High School District 209 Board of Education. 'The state budget funds projects in communities across the state,' said an emailed statement from Jon Maxson, a spokesman for Welch, when asked to comment about the grant for Proviso West. 'Since 2021, Speaker Welch has helped fund a $30 million bridge in Kane and McHenry county; $33 million for a sports complex in Tinley Park; $50 million for Woodlawn; $30 million for Fermilab in Batavia; and $50 million for Northwestern—all outside of his district. These are economic development projects that have invested in red and blue communities alike. One project in this year's budget helps a school in his district fund a new sports complex that will serve the entire community and surrounding area by supporting student athletics, community events, and opportunities for local businesses.'
Chicago Tribune
20-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Oak Park and River Forest High School hires former Homewood-Flossmoor, Naperville administrator
Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 has hired an administrator experienced in curriculum to be its new assistant superintendent for student learning to replace Laurie Fiorenza who resigned, effective June 30, without explanation in April. Fiorenza's replacement will be Jen Hester, who has worked for the last five years as the director of student curriculum, instruction and professional development at Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233, a one-school district like OPRF. Prior to working at Homewood-Flossmoor, Hester worked as the top academic or curriculum administrator at Naperville Community Unit School District 203, which includes Naperville Central and Naperville North high schools, and St. Charles Community Unit District 303 which includes St. Charles East and St. Charles North high schools. She served for eight years as the chief academic officer at Naperville District 203 before that position was eliminated in a cost cutting move. She was going to be reassigned to be a reading specialist at a middle school in the district but instead worked for a year as consultant before being hired at Homewood-Flossmoor. 'I'm thrilled to have Dr. Hester join the district,' OPRF District 200 Superintendent Greg Johnson said in a news release. 'She really stood out among the other candidates for her array of experience in large, diverse districts, expertise in curricular knowledge, passion for classroom instruction and understanding of data and school metrics. She'll be a tremendous asset as we work to ensure all students can achieve their full potential, both here at OPRF and once they graduate.' Hester was chosen from a field of 90 candidates and underwent three rounds of interviews. The first rounds of interviews included teachers and students as well as administrators. Hester grew up in York, Pennsylvania, where her mother, grandmother and an aunt were all teachers. After graduating from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania she began her career teaching sixth grade in Hanover, Pennsylvania. After teaching sixth grade for three years she came to Chicago to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she earned a master's degree in educational leadership and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. Much of her graduate work focused on reading and literacy Hester worked for the Chicago Public Schools for three years starting as a literacy specialist and rising to become the manager of high school literacy at CPS before going to St. Charles as a literacy coordinator before rising to curriculum director. Hester, whose husband John Schalk grew up in River Forest and graduated from OPRF in 1989, said the OPRF job appealed to her because of shared values. 'I feel like my core beliefs and values really align with Oak Park and River Forest's vision and mission,' Hester said, adding she is especially committed to work to improve the academic achievement of Black and Hispanic students. 'I come from a long line of educators and I've had lots of help myself along the way from those educators and I definitely believe that all kids can and will succeed at high levels.' At Homewood-Flossmoor, Hester led a detracking program somewhat similar to what has been implemented at OPRF in the Honors for All freshman program. At Homewood-Flossmoor, Hester said, lower level classes were eliminated in an attempt to give all students exposure to rigorous core classes. 'We did some work there with detracking and ensuring that all kids were in the rigorous, grade level core curriculum,' Hester said. 'I'm also very proud of being part of and leading, with my team, a lot of our equity learning and work,' Hester said. While Homewood-Flossmoor High School and OPRF are similar in size, OPRF is a little bigger, and both have diverse student populations their demographics differ. According to the most recent school report card 73.6% of H-F students are Black, 12.3% are white and 9.7% are Hispanic. At OPRF, 51.8% of students are white, 19% of Black and 15.4% are Hispanic. While both H-F and OPRF were designated as commendable schools by the state last year and both have reputations as excellent schools, OPRF's recent academic performance has been significantly stronger. According to the 2024 Illinois School Report Card, only 26% of H-F juniors scored high enough on the SAT to meet the state's tough English Language Arts proficiency standards compared to 64% of OPRF juniors. In math only 18% of H-F students met the state's proficiency standard compared to 55% at OPRF. According to the state, OPRF has a higher percentage of low income students, 20%, than H-F where 14% of students are designated as low income. Like many schools across the nation Homewood-Flossmoor has a wide gap in test scores between white and Black students although its achievement gap is not as wide as it is at OPRF. At H-F the gap between the percentage of white students and Black students meeting state proficiency standards was 38 points in ELA and 33 points in math while at OPRF it was 52 points in ELA and 51 points in math. Hester said her first priority upon starting her job at OPRF on July 1 will be to get to know the school better. 'My first goal is always to make connections to everybody who's there and really seek to understand what's important to them, what matters, what makes OPRF OPRF,' Hester said. She said she is not ready to comment in detail about the Honors for All Program which just completed its third year. The first Honors for All cohort took the ACT in the spring and will be seniors in the fall. 'I need to get in and learn,' Hester said. 'I need to come to Oak Park and River Forest and really learn what Honors for All means and understand the goals more deeply than you can through an interview process and then the goal is, always, for all kids to learn at high levels.' Hester will be paid an annual salary of $195,000 at OPHF.
Chicago Tribune
03-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
‘Business isn't just for boys': All-girl team wins Oak Park and River Forest High ‘Shark Tank' for third straight year
Teagan O'Carroll, 18, has worked for two years as a coordinator at the James Anthony Salon in Oak Park. During that time she has trained a few new employees. But she was struck by how long it took to get some people proficient in their new jobs. 'I just found that the onboarding process and the training experience was incredibly inefficient and it took way longer than it should have, not necessarily for me, but for a lot of people that I personally trained,' O'Carroll said. 'Traditional training methods like listening to your manager talk for hours and taking notes just is not effective for everyone.' So when O'Carroll, of Oak Park, had to come up with an idea for a business for the Business Incubator class she took this year as a senior at Oak Park and River Forest High School, she thought of developing an interactive onboarding and training app that would customize the onboarding and training process. 'I just wanted to create a platform that makes it easier for people with a variety of different learning abilities or styles to train efficiently in the workplace,' O'Carroll said. O'Carroll and classmates Symone Archie McWhorter, who like O'Carroll graduated from OPRF on June 1, junior Michayla Marks and sophomore Cheslynn Ash, called their business Orbit. Orbit was one of 18 teams from the three sections of the Business Incubator class at OPRF that squared off in a months long 'Shark Tank' style competition during the school year. After the final round on May 22, Orbit emerged with a narrow victory. The prototype for the Orbit app consisted of a reading module, a testing module and a video module that businesses could customize to individually guide new employees. 'It feels unreal,' O'Carroll said. 'The competition was incredibly tight.' Each of the Orbit team members receive a $1,000 scholarship. O'Carroll is headed to Central Michigan University to study business communications and marketing while Archie McWhorter is headed to San Diego State University. The money for the scholarships is provided by the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation. O'Carroll had the title of visionary for Orbit, Archie McWhorter handled creative design, including designing a company logo, Ash was the chief financial officer, what Orbit called Keeper of the Coin, while Marks was the customer champion handling customer relations. 'We all connected very well and worked very well together,' O'Carroll said. O'Carroll said that Business Incubator class, which is a dual credit class with Triton College, just further fueled her passion for entrepreneurship. Her interest in entrepreneurship comes, in part, from her father, Fergus, who has developed a marketing podcast called On Strategy Showcase. Her mother, Gayle O'Carroll, is vice president of digital sales at Univision. 'I thought I knew what I wanted to do but this class made me positive of what I want to do,' O'Carroll said. 'It really taught me so much.' She loved the class. 'I would take it a million times over,' O'Carroll said. O'Carroll said that she learned a lot about teamwork and working with others. 'This class has taught me so much,' O'Carroll told the OPRF District 200 School Board at a May 22 meeting where the Orbit team members were recognized right after their victory. 'It has taught me how to collaborate well with others.' O'Carroll and her classmates' confidence as public speakers grew during the year as they learned how to make pitches to potential investors as they raised capital for their businesses. 'They grew in their confidence and skills as future business people,' said OPRF business teacher Melissa Martinez who taught two of three sections of the Business Incubator class including the one that the Orbit team members were in. One of the four local business people serving as judges in the contest was School Board member Graham Brisben. 'The Orbit team demonstrated that they really put the work in and these business plans are never going to be perfect but they did a really thorough job of presenting well, doing the research, talking to people in their intended market and also their business derived from some of their real world life experiences because a number of them had part time jobs in small businesses,' said Brisben who owns a supply chain consulting firm. The class was just one of a number of business classes O'Carroll took at OPRF. 'I really love the business courses at OPRF,' O'Carroll said. 'They're so beneficial.' This was the third consecutive year that an all-girl team won the Business Incubator class's 'Shark Tank' competition. This year all the all-girls teams made it to the finals of the competition. 'The girl teams were lethal,' Martinez said. Martinez, who worked in marketing for 13 years before becoming a teacher, is actively recruiting more girls to take business classes at OPRF. 'We're trying to recruit more girls and open their minds, you know, that business is not just for boys,' Martinez said.
Chicago Tribune
27-05-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher quits, alleges discrimination
A special education at Oak Park and River Forest High School who left her job and classroom with just two weeks left in the school year said in a public comment at a School Board meeting that she was forced to resign. Kiah Brown, who had taught at OPRF since 2019, addressed the OPRF District 200 school board at its May 22 meeting just six days after she abruptly left her job. In her approximately four minute statement at the meeting, Brown said she was forced to resign and that she believed her resignation constituted a 'constructive discharge,' a legal term meaning that conditions are so bad at a job that an employee has no alternative but to resign and is essentially fired. Brown told the board her experience at OPRF fell far short of the school's professed values of equity, inclusion and academic excellence. 'Unfortunately what I experienced and what I witnessed undermined those values,' a tearful Brown said at the meeting. 'Across departments and especially within the special education department, I observed inequitable treatment of students and staff and lack of support which led to the increase in turnover particularly among African American employees since the most recent change in administration. They reflect a pattern fueled by poor leadership practices, misrepresentation and the protection of internal leadership alliances over equity and accountability.' 'I've come to the point where the moral challenges I face within OPRFHS's system are no longer something I can ignore without compromising my own health and well-being,' Brown wrote. 'As much as I love the students I serve, I've realized that love cannot come at the cost of my own peace and professional integrity.' Brown also accused unnamed OPRF administrators of fostering a hostile work environment and inflicting psychological and professional harm on her. 'What I've endured is not isolated; it's part of a collective pattern of targeted attacks carried out by what I would describe as individuals operating like 13th graders,' Brown said. Brown, a math teacher, urged the board to look into what has been going on at OPRF and 'stop allowing image to outweigh impact.' 'You cannot continue to market equity by indirectly supporting those who perpetuate the antithesis and inadvertently punishing those who advocate for it,' she said. According to her LinkedIn page, Brown has just been hired as a case manager at Whitney Young High School in Chicago. 'Please be advised that Ms. Brown resigned for personal reasons,' Roberts wrote. Roberts told them a full time substitute who is a licensed learning behavior specialist at OPRF would take over Brown's assignments for the last two weeks of the school year. 'We would like to assure you that we have taken the necessary steps to ensure continuity of instruction for your student,' Roberts wrote. The School Board met in closed session at the meeting for 45 minutes with the district's human resources director Roxana Sanders and director of Special Education Andrea Neuman. After the meeting Sanders, Neuman and Superintendent Greg Johnson all declined to comment when asked about their reaction to Brown's public comment. New School Board president Audrey Williams-Lee had a short answer when asked about her reaction to Brown's comments. 'Everyone has the right to express their opinion and share their perspective,' Williams said. 'That's what our country is all about.' In April, Seneca Johnson, a Student Resource Center monitor at OPRF who has been on leave for the entire school year after filing a complaint with the federal Equal Opportunity Commission accusing administrators of discrimination, told the School Board that many top administrators, some of whom are Black, had discriminated against Black employees at the school. 'I want to speak on the disturbing reality of systematic injustice at Oak Park and River Forest High School,' Johnson said in a public comment at the April 10 school board meeting. 'For far too long the school has tolerated discrimination based on disability, age, sex and race, workplace retaliation, creating a hostile work environment that had disproportionately affected Black women and men.' The morning after the School Board meeting an OPRF spokeswoman said she couldn't comment about specific cases. 'We take them seriously and we do look into them,' said Karin Sullivan, the school's executive director of communications. 'It's a HR process and we follow our policies and procedures when it comes to investigations.' Two School Board members said that they want the school to look into what has been going on. 'It's obviously very concerning, it is something that needs to be looked into,' said Fred Arkin, the board's senior member. Arkin said that it was very unusual that a teacher would quit with just two weeks left in the school year and not finish the semester. Arkin was asked if he thought there was a problem with the workplace culture at OPRF. 'I think that has to be investigated,' Arkin said. 'Do I think there is a problem? I don't think there is a problem but I think we do need to dig into it and learn more about what's going on to determine if there is a problem.' But at a school with around 500 employees, 'It's difficult to make everybody 100% happy,' Arkin said. 'Obviously the two statements that we had from the two employees were very passionate, very emotional, but if there is something underlying that's a problem we've got to look at it,' Arkin said. New board member Josh Gertz said he has 'expressed concern toward the administration.' 'It's certainly something I intend to follow up on with the administration,' Gertz said. 'The other thing I would say is that it did seem that they had already begun a process of looking into the allegations and doing their due diligence which was welcomed, it was good to hear.'
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Ethan Moore becomes MLB draft prospect while leading OPRF baseball
Ethan Moore becomes MLB draft prospect while leading OPRF baseball (Image Source: Getty Images) Oak Park-River Forest High School (OPRF) high school senior Ethan Moore is making big-time headlines. Not only is he finishing up his final high school baseball season, but he's also splashing across the country. A switch-hitting shortstop with phenomenal ability, Moore has become one of the top 100 MLB draft prospects. With a college scholarship in hand from Tennessee and pro scouts closely monitoring him, Moore's baseball career is one to follow. This article examines what made him such a stand-out player. Ethan Moore paces OPRF with skill and determination Ethan Moore is the foundation of the OPRF baseball team . A shortstop, he rules the infield with ease and has a way of making the hard look easy. But his switch-hitting makes him special. Moore can hit from both sides of the plate, which makes him dangerous in any batting order. Colleagues and coaches alike characterize Moore as not just good, but one of a kind. Some call him a "generational player," the kind of player that appears once in a blue moon. With impressive batting averages and fielding abilities, he's helped OPRF have a good season going into the playoffs. Despite all the spotlight, Moore stays focused. He works incredibly hard and puts the team first. He leads from the front and keeps getting better game after game. Tennessee commitment and MLB draft spotlight raise stakes Moore's already made a monster choice; he's playing college baseball at the University of Tennessee, one of the top programs in the country. But now there's another monster question on everyone's mind: Will he skip college and head straight to the pros? MLB scouts are keeping an eye on him. Being ranked in the top 100 draft prospects means that teams are seriously contemplating drafting him early. If that happens, Moore would have a tough choice to make to remain with Tennessee or enter professional baseball straight away. Regardless of what he does, Moore is ready. He's diligent, humble, and still trying to get better. His future is bright, and fans can't wait to see what he'll do next. Also Read: Tree 'More Than I Could Have Expected'- Phillies' Pitcher Mick Abel Opens Up After Stunning MLB Debut Against Pirates Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
