Friday, March 29, 2013
Following the signing of the emerging sports letter by Bremen High School District 228, a club lacrosse team is forming for the 2013 season, with hopes that the team will grow to both boys and girls teams in the coming year.
Lacrosse players, fans and parents in Bremen High School District 228, rejoice! After more than two years of pushing, pulling and prodding, district administration finally signed off on an Illinois High School Association emerging sports agreement letter, allowing for lacrosse to become a district sponsored sport. READ: D228 Agrees to Waiver, Allows Lacrosse Although the district signed off on the letter and will sponsor the sport, Oak Forest Park District Commissioner Joe Conway, who helped spearhead the latest efforts to get lacrosse into District 228, said the sport will be a co-op club activity, led by parents, players and coaches. “The district is on board, they're happy,” Conway said. “We met at a common level and now we're going to …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to advocate cutting 3 percent of the education budget to deal with the pension crisis.
Bremen High School District 228 schools may soon have to work with even tighter funding as Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to advocate cutting 3 percent of the education budget to alleviate pension costs, the Chicago Tribune reports. That equates to a $278 million reduction in funds for high schools and elementary schools, and it will be the third dramatic budget blow from the state to local schools in three years. "When you have that tremendous amount of money that you have to put in the pension (system), something's got to give," Quinn told the Tribune. Homewood Rep. Will Davis said lawmakers need to figure out an alternative to education cuts during a House debate last week. As expected, local schools are not happy about the news. "Who knows…
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Bremen High School District 228 board of education approved a move to online registration for classes at its Jan. 15 meeting. The online process is expected to save thousands of dollars for the district and ease the process for students.
Parents of students and students registering for courses in Bremen High School District 228 are about to have a lot less paperwork to fill out and sort, thanks to a move by the district's board of education at its Jan. 15 meeting. The board, which was without member Marc Turner, passed a measure to transfer all class registration to an electronic format, potentially saving the district thousands of dollars annually on paper mailings. “The process will save the district considerable funds, by eliminating the annual mailing, as well the cost associated with providing workers for the walk-in registration dates,” said board member Evelyn Gleason. The board's finance committee and Superintendent Bill Kendall recommended the district's move to …
Monday, January 14, 2013
District 228 Board of Education President Deb Stearns filed for candidacy for the April 9 election. Her petition to appear on the ballot is being challenged by Ron Szabo. The matter was continued to Jan. 23 during a hearing Jan. 11.
Bremen High School District 228 school board president Deb Stearns and the rest of the school district community will have to wait a little longer to find out if she will be on the April 9 ballot. Resident Ronald Szabo objected to her candidacy, and appeared before the district's Education Officers Electoral Board on Friday, Jan. 11. During the special meeting of the electoral board, Stearns's lawyer, John Murphy, outlined a motion to dismiss Ron Szabo's objections to her candidacy. Murphy spent the majority of the nearly half-hour meeting explaining why the electoral board should dismiss the objections before answering questions from the board about his motion. Murphy said there were several reasons to dismiss the challenge, the first …
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The Bremen High School District 228 board of education approved a potential new contract for district administrators. The contract will be presented to the administrators sometime early next week.
Months after agreeing on a new contract with the Joint Faculty Association, District 228 board members took a closer look at adminstrator contracts during a special meeting Dec. 28. A new approach to contracts includes modeling administrator contracts more similarly to teacher contracts, including pension line items, said Community Relations Coordinator Lori DeVos. Details were discussed in closed session; board members approved the measure in a public vote. District administration have yet to view and approve a formal contract. “The board met last week to go over, to put together a new mulit-year contract for administrators so that it was similar to the teachers' contract,” DeVos said. “So, that all the certified staff had something that…
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Bremen High School District 228 teachers gave five presentations to the board during its Nov. 20 meeting. The five presenters were then graded, with the top performer earning a trip to a teaching conference of their choice.
The spotlight was on several teachers during the District 228 Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 20, as teachers from all four district high schools presented six ideas to improve the district. At the district's annual institute day, which took place Oct. 5, teachers from across the district presented various ideas and programs for possible use in the classroom. Of all the presentations, six were chosen as standouts to be presented before the board. Although only five of the six presenters were available for the meeting, the board was left with a hard choice of who would be named as the top presentation and earn a nice reward for their efforts. “Whoever the board chooses as the top pair or person, they get to choose a state or …
Friday, October 26, 2012
All four schools in Bremen District 228 received the Abraham Lincoln Book Award Grant, with each school receiving 22 books that students will vote on. The top vote-getting book will be awarded the Abraham Lincoln Book Award.
All four schools in Bremen High School District 228 recently received the Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois' High School Readers' Choice Award grant. The grant, which is given to only 40 schools in the state every year, is handed down by the Illinois School Library Media Association. The grant gives each school 22 books that students read and then vote on in January, and the book with the most votes receives the Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois High School Readers' Choice Award. This is the first time in several years that Oak Forest High School has received the grant, said Cheryl Harris, Media Specialist at the Oak Forest High School Library and IMC, and the first time Harris knew of all four schools received the grant in the same year—which…
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Joint Faculty Association and Bremen School District 228 have reached a tentative agreement. A vote by teachers union members will take place Tuesday afternoon.
Following months of negotiations, the Joint Faculty Association and Bremen School District 228 seem to have reached an agreement, leaders from both sides confirmed. District Superintendent Bill Kendall and JFA President Kathleene McNeeley told Patch that a tentative agreement is in place, which would squash any potential of a strike by district teachers. "A vote is taking place later today," McNeeley said, via email. "The membership will decide whether to accept or decline a contract proposal. It is not a strike authorization vote." Kendall said that should the union vote to approve the contract, he was hopeful it would go before the D228 Board of Education at its next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. at Oak Forest High School. Sign…
Sunday, August 26, 2012
After several months of bargaining, the Teacher's Union and Bremen District 228 still have no contract agreement, leaving the possibility of a strike by the union higher than ever.
Since March, the teacher's union and District 228 administration have been at the bargaining table, trying to reach a "fair and equitable," agreement on a new contract. And since March, the two sides have come away from every session deadlocked, without an end in sight. The two sides were hopeful they'd reach an agreement Aug. 23. Without an aggreement, a strike by the union is more than likely, although the District has not begun planning for that outcome. Read more about what both sides had to say on the issue.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The Bremen School District 228 teacher's union continues negotiations with district officials, which began in the spring. The two sides hope to avoid a strike, but aren't certain if that will be possible.
Time is slipping away and it seems that neither representatives from the Joint Faculty Association nor those from Bremen School District 228 are willing to back down. The two sides continue to negotiate a potential new contract agreement—a process that began in March. Teachers from all of the District's schools flooded Tuesday night's D228 Board of Education meeting, filling every seat and turning it into a standing-room-only event. Each teacher wore red, a sign of unity that JFA President Kathleen McNeeley said made a point. “Our mantra for this year is 'United We Stand,'” McNeeley said. “We are standing for education and what is right.” The Bremen School District is comprised of four high schools serving more than 5,000 students in …
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Lauren Traut
1:57 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Hello, reader. We posed the question as hypothetical, because that's exactly what these proposed cuts are—hypothetical. You can bet that if the funding cut goes through, there will be additional follow-up. Lauren Traut, Associate Regional Editor more ›