District 90 Seeks Input on Roosevelt Improvements

Roosevelt Middle School is located at 7560 Oak Avenue in River Forest.

River Forest School District 90 officials continue to seek the community's input on $1 million in improvements at Roosevelt Middle School, which could include renovated parking lots and the addition of lighting and bike racks, according to the Chicago Tribune.  A meeting was held this week to inform the community regarding discussions on the project at the school, which the school board delayed in March since "they thought a more extensive dialogue with the community was needed," according to the Tribune. 

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District 90 Looks to Send Roosevelt Student to State Geography Bee

Student from River Forest has gone to statewide competition the past four years.

Students at Roosevelt Middle School will square off from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. Friday to determine who will represent the River Forest school at the Illinois Geography Bee. The winner school-wide will then take a test to determine if they'll be among the 100 to have the opportunity to go on to the state competition, which will be held in April at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade A Roosevelt student has progressed to the state level for the past four years, school officials said. Last year, Jake Grant, an eighth-grader at Roosevelt, placed 7th in the competition at the College of DuPage. Thousands of schools participate in the National Geographic Bee, a contest  designed to encourage teachers …

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River Forest School Takes Home Blue Ribbon

Roosevelt Middle School to celebrate national award for academic achievement.

Roosevelt Middle School in River Forest is taking in the rarified air of being named one of the top institutions in the U.S. And the entire community will be on hand Nov. 30 to celebrate being named a Blue Ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education. The school in September was named one of 220 winners of the honor nationwide. It's a first for the River Forest school. Principal Larry Garstki and 8th grade science teacher Linda Kriegermeier were in Washington, D.C. Nov. 12 and 13 to pick up the award. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was there for the presentation. Another department official handed out the awards. Garstki is pretty excited about it. "It's the most prestigious award a school can receive," he said. "You have to be …

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Roosevelt Middle School Takes Bite out of Hunger

River Forest school collects nearly 670 pounds of food for Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry; packed hundreds of meals for children overseas.

Roosevelt Middle School turned Oct. 22 into a day of learning the importance of fighting hunger at home and around the world. The school collected 669 pounds of nonperishable food to benefit the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. On the same day 139 students, 10 school staff and 15 parents packed 27,596 meals for Feed My Starving Children, a faith-based group that sends specifically formulated meals for malnourished children around the world. The projects were organized by the eighth grade class at Roosevelt as the culmination of social studies, math and language arts projects, as well as service-learning lessons, said Kathi O'Donnell, the eighth grade team leader. "Students learn the most when their life experiences go along with the …

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The Week Ahead

Mystery, Graphic Novels and the Civil War: The Week Ahead

A classic, the close of a season and much more.

Who can resist Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable? The Oak Park Public Library is launching a series of films honoring Colbert's long career by presenting "It Happened One Night." The 1934 film features Colbert as a runaway heiress who meets up with Gable, a wise-cracking reporter on the hunt for a good news story. Director Frank Capra’s charming romantic comedy won Oscars in all major categories, including best actress and best actor; it was the first film to do so. Oak Park film historian Doug Deuchler will introduce the film and conduct a discussion following each screening. The movie will be shown at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the main branch, 834 Lake St. It is free. William Kent Krueger will lead a discussion of his new book "Trickster's …

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Roosevelt Middle Named a National Blue Ribbon School

The River Forest school was named on Friday as one of 219 public schools nationwide to receive the highly prestigious national honor, one of just five Illinois middle schools.

River Forest’s Roosevelt Middle School captured one of the nation’s highest awards for a school’s achievements in education on Friday when word came down from the U.S. Secretary of Education that the school has been named as a Blue Ribbon School for 2012. Roosevelt was named in the category of “Exemplary High Performing” (the other is for “Exemplary Improving”), honoring the school for stellar performance in academics and extracurricular activities and for general high quality of education. Principal Larry Garstki cited the school’s wide range of opportunities for its students—quality classrooms and teachers, a variety of extracurriculars, options for honors classes, independent-study and online courses—as factors that make Roosevelt stand…

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Eagle Scout Restores Roosevelt's War Memorial

Plaque restoration project by River Forest's Nicholas Trivelas highlights local World War I veterans.

Over the course of the first World War, 252 young men and women from the village of River Forest were sent to the war effort. Who were they? It's a question with answers that fade each passing year. But one River Forest teenager was poised to find out more. Nicholas Trivelas, 17, has recently completed his Eagle Scout project restoring the plaques inside Memorial Hall at Roosevelt Middle School. The restoration will be unveiled in a public ceremony slated for 2 p.m. Sept. 9 at the school, 7560 Oak Ave., where Trivelas will deliver his findings from years of on-again, off-again research examining the lives and deaths of local veterans. If you're unfamiliar with the school's War Memorial, you're not alone. Completed in the 1920s, the …

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Work on Schedule for Roosevelt Middle School

Office relocations, brick work among improvements underway at River Forest middle school.

VIDEO: OPRF Chinese Club Visits Roosevelt Middle School

Through music, food and games, program aims to bridge cultural divide.

In between bites of potstickers and rice — and a few Oreos for good measure —students at Roosevelt Middle School were treated to a recent after school visit from the Oak Park-River Forest High School Chinese Cultural Society club.   Members of the student club explained to the middle schoolers the group's activities, then led them through a series of games and dances linked to Chinese culture.  Truman McGee, an OPRF junior who doubled as the costume head during the traditional Lion Dance, said the club meets occassionally to watch Chinese movies and to snack on Asian treats.  The OPRF Chinese Cultural Society is led by Aileen Hung, a second-year Chinese-Mandarin teacher at the high school. Hung, a native of Taiwan, was profiled recently in…

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9/11, Through a Middle Schooler's Eyes

When tragedy struck, a Roosevelt Middle School art teacher urged student expression.

Amidst the confusion and chaos of Sept. 11, 2001, Roosevelt Middle School students were spreading rumors of more plane hijackings, teachers were glued to a small television and faculty members presided over assemblies designed to calm a nervous student body.  In the days after, the students remained bewildered, so art instructor Sally McPartlin grabbed several sheets of paper and let the children express themselves. The result of that impromptu exercise, displayed in the gallery above, offers a unique and disheartening look at an unforgettable day in American history.  The paintings and drawings, recently pulled from a classroom closet, will be on display throughout the week for Roosevelt's current crop of students and faculty.

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