Established 1930

On February 15, seven excellent students received the Good Citizen Award from the Swallow Cliff Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution (NSDAR) in Palos Heights. These exemplary students earned this prestigious award by their written essay submissions to their school. They are Caroline Bukowski from Lemont (Lemont High School), Meagan Hecker from Burbank (St. Lawrence High School), Salma Kamni from Palos Heights (Stagg High School), Anne O’Brien from Tinley Park (Tinley Park High School), and Jacob Stocks from Oak Forest (Oak Forest High School). Ella Altena from Evergreen Park (Chicago Christian High School) and Emiyah Twietmeyer from Tinley Park (Andrew High School) were unable to attend.  

Full story available in the Midlothian-Bremen Messenger

On Friday, February 7th, students at Council Oak Montessori School prepared 100 lunches for families in Blue Island and Robbins. Community is important to the students at Council Oak Montessori School, where from a young age they have opportunities to practice service and stewardship, so is helping the students to become capable. For these reasons and more, Council Oak’s Upper Elementary class prepared lunches for the nearby Pro Labore Dei, a local non-profit consisting of volunteers who serve families and homeless in need in Robbins, Blue Island, and Lower Wacker in Chicago. Through this effort, they will be distributing 400 lunches total. 

Full story available in the Midlothian-Bremen Messenger

Edwin Lipowski teaches three AP Human Geography classes at Oak Forest High School. Every year, his students study six major world conflicts. This year, he wanted to try something new which would provide his students real workplace skills and experience while also showcasing student creativity and knowledge on the subject matter.  

He challenged his three classes to create a documentary.

The rules were simple; each class had to work together to create one long-form documentary totaling 40 minutes that covered all six conflicts. How roles and responsibilities were assigned was completely up to the class.

As a result, students applied for the roles they wanted amongst their group of peers. Roles ranged and included project manager, video director, video team members, writing director, writing team member, prop director, prop team member, quiz and research team member, etc.

Full story available in the Midlothian-Bremen Messenger

Recent visitors to Midlothian Public Library may have noticed that the library’s exterior has been starting to look worn and damaged. The Midlothian Public Library Board of Trustees is happy to announce that starting this June, the library will undergo a complete exterior renovation.

When the library was built in 1991, the incorporation of certain design features and new construction materials inadvertently led to ongoing problems with water infiltration and poor insulation. These problems, combined with normal wear and tear on the building, created a situation that is untenable. Last November, when pieces of the building’s exterior cladding began to fall off and the library closed for emergency repairs, it became apparent that urgent action was necessary.

The renovation will encompass all exterior aspects of the building–exterior cladding, insulation, windows, skylights, roof, doors, and landscaping. Because one system of the building depends on the others, replacing one part without the others would cause repetition of work in the future. Also, doing one construction project rather than several allows certain costs (such as scaffolding and fencing) to be paid for once rather than multiple times. Therefore, the Board opted to do a complete renovation rather than a series of smaller phases.

Full story available in the Midlothian-Bremen Messenger