ELECTION CENTRAL 2013: Oak Lawn Spring Election

Patch's guide to the 2013 local election on Tuesday, April 9, including candidate biographies and issue stances, voting information, polling locations and more.

The 2013 spring election is just around the corner. Learn about the candidates running for various offices, and stay up on key voting information. Bookmark this page and return for updates leading up to April 9. Cook County Clerk David Orr's office also will be fielding calls from voters now and until the polls close Tuesday, April 9. The Clerk's Office provides the following phone numbers: Information about the above services also can be obtained by visiting the Cook County Clerk's website. The clerk's website also will be tracking suburban races after the polls close at 7 p.m. April 9. To report voter fraud and other irregularities during early voting or on election day, call the Cook County Clerk's office at 312-603-0236. Find your …

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Oak Lawn Public Schools Hold Kindergarten Registration

Registration for Dist. 122 and Dist. 123 takes place this month. Information for Dist. 125 is forthcoming.

Ridgeland School Dist. 122 and Oak Lawn-Hometown Dist. 123 will both be holding kindergarten registration this month. Sign up for Oak Lawn Patch breaking news alerts. Dist. 122’s attendance area is bounded by the west side of Central Avenue, to the east side of Harlem Avenue, and from the south side of 87th Street to the north side of 103rd Street.  The Dist. 123 boundaries are Pulaski Road on the east, 107th Street on the south, Central Avenue on the west and 87th Street on the north. Kindergarten registration for students new to Dist. 123 is scheduled 1 to 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Registration will be in the gym at Hometown Elementary School, 8870 S. Duffy Ave., Hometown. Registration is by appointment only. To set up a time, contact the …

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Editor's Notebook

Dorothy's Last Stand: At 93, a Beloved Crossing Guard Is Hanging Up Her Stop Sign

After 22 years of keeping Lieb School students safe, Dorothy Blume is retiring to spend more time with her family.

Today, Dorothy Blume will put on her crossing guard uniform one last time and guide the last child from George Lieb Elementary School safely across Oak Park Avenue. Dorothy is a woman of many careers: teacher, nurse, secretary. But it’s her last career, as a crossing guard—the one she invented for herself 22 years ago when she was 71 years old—that she has found the most rewarding. “I liked this better,” Dorothy says. “After my husband died—he was a minister—I had to support myself so I could buy a house.” Dorothy, now 93, is retiring to spend more time with her family, which includes five children, 22 grandchildren, and 30 great grandchildren (with two more on the way). “My husband said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply,’ ” Dorothy says. Earlier…

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Lorraine Swanson

8:10 pm on Thursday, August 25, 2011

Dorothy is a gem. You sound like a gem too, Marjorie. Let me know the next time the Double Nickel Chorus is singing.   more ›

D122 Starts Hiring Back Teachers

Ridgeland Dist. 122 laid off 60 teachers in March, but hopes to hire a lot of them back.

Ridgeland Dist. 122 has started to hire back some of the 60 teachers it let go in March. At the D122 school board meeting last month, board members approved the rehiring of 14 teachers, including two new school principals at Simmons Middle and Harnew Elementary schools. In March, D122 Superintendent Tom Smythe told Patch that the district routinely releases teachers every year, most of them from grant-dependent programs. The current school year’s layoffs, however, differ from past years because the district released non-tenured teachers, in addition to part-time teachers who provide math and reading instruction for larger classrooms. The district anticipates hiring more teachers in May and June, and possibly up to July. The laid-off …

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Lost Oak Lawn

Voices from the Past: Lettie-Kennedy Harnew

One of Oak Lawn’s earliest residents recalls a lifetime of change.

Finally settling into her desk in a frigid one-room schoolhouse, Lettie Kennedy let out a giant sigh as she removed her filthy boots and dropped them to the floor besides a stack of textbooks. Although she drew looks of scorn from her classmates and teacher, Lettie paid no attention to them. After a two-mile journey that took her across the boggy marshes of the Cal-Sag Canal, she felt that a break was well-deserved. Across town, in a diminutive building that served as the office for Worth Township officials, a weathered farmer pleaded with the council members gathered before him. Why, he asked, should his daughter be forced to travel nearly five miles each day to attend school? The Kennedys lived on the edge of the Palos-Worth boundary …

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District 122 'Honorably Dismisses' 60 teachers

At their regular board meeting last night, D122 school board members faced with shrinking enrollment and uncertainty in state funding, let go 60 teachers.

In the weeks ahead, 60 part-time and non-tenured teachers from Ridgeland School Dist. 122 will begin reapplying for their jobs, after the board dismissed them 5-2 during its regular meeting Thursday night at Kolb Elementary School. With district-wide enrollment decreasing, a mobility rate of 40 percent where students move out of the district every few months, and financial woes that concern both the state and federal governments, the district's choice was clear. “On behalf of all you guys,” lamented school board member David Lis, “you do a wonderful job.” It's a decision that the teacher's union president, Nancy Havlin, does not wholeheartedly agree with; nevertheless, she accepts it knowing the vote is in the district's best interest. “I …

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Oak Lawn Elementary School Districts Cutting Teachers

Districts 122 and 123 are both planning staff reductions, but some teachers may be able to re-apply for their jobs based on funding, enrollment and qualifications.

Oak Lawn’s public elementary school districts are reducing their teaching staffs for next year but may hire back some teachers depending on funding, enrollment and certifications in certain subject areas. The most drastic layoffs are in Ridgeland Dist. 122, which plans to release 60 teachers, including non-tenured and part-time teachers who provide math and reading instruction for larger classrooms. Oak Lawn-Hometown Dist. 123 also plans to release six full-time teachers, with the possibility of re-hiring three of them. D122 "Blanket" Releases Routine D122 Superintendent Tom Smyth called the district-wide layoffs routine. The district has routinely released teachers over the past three years, mostly from grant-dependent programs. Many of …

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inquiring minds

9:21 pm on Saturday, March 19, 2011

How about District 135? That place seems pretty well run. Or are you only looking for minority areas when you say the southside?   more ›

Lost Oak Lawn

Sculpting Young Minds

Some of Oak Lawn’s first educators leave a lasting legacy of selfless dedication.

Our community has been known for many things.  From soaring church spires to neighborly hospitality, this once sleepy farm town was transformed into a bustling berg at the heart of Chicago’s Southland.  The police and fire departments, originally a motley, but dedicated group of volunteers, were recently admired as two of the best-funded emergency organizations in Illinois. But Oak Lawn has another claim to fame.  Immediately following its founding, educators flocked to the village, establishing numerous schools, many of which educate our children to this day.  It was from these humble origins that the sprawling academic centers of today were born. Lost Oak Lawn takes a look at two of those schools that have since become household names to…

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D122 Tax Levy Increases by 15 Percent in 2010

Despite increase, district realistically expects to garner less than what it is seeking.

Ridgeland School District 122 board members approved a $17.5 million tax levy but expect to receive less when the 2010 property tax bills come out next fall. The 2010 tax levy represents a 15-percent increase over the 2009 tax levy. Because the levy increase was more than 5 percent, the school board held a public hearing Dec. 15 at the Dist. 122 administrative office as required by law. Assistant Superintendent Eric Trimberger explained that the $17.5 million figure represented a balloon levy that operates as a safety net to capture all possible tax dollars coming to the district should equalized assessed valuations and new property estimates change drastically. The 15-percent increase in the balloon levy represents Dist. 122's operating …

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