David Halperin
The SOS message from Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg reads “Save Our School.”
Rich East High School, on the verge of celebrating its 60th birthday and once a measure of the village’s vision for the future, is in danger of closing as a four-year school with a full curriculum. In an email, Ostenburg says this must not happen.
“It is our local high school,” he writes in bold red letters. “We must fight to keep Rich East High School open.”
In recent years, a divided and quarrelsome Rich Township High School District 227 Board has been looking at ways to cut expenses and improve academic performance. The board, whose majority changed in the April election, recently moved to fire Supt. Donna Leak and cancel multi-year contracts for the principals of the three high schools as well as the assistant superintendent and finance director.
Along with this, there have been rumors in recent years that Rich East, the district’s original high school that serves students from Park Forest and the Beacon Hills section of Chicago Heights, would be closed due to declining enrollment in District 227.
Because Rich East has the smallest enrollment of the three schools, the school board is considering a plan to merge its students into Rich South in Richton Park and Rich Central in Olympia Fields and convert the school into a vocational-technical school.
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