GROWING COMMUNITY WEDNESDAY JOURNAL, INC.
ForestParkReview.com
Vol. 102, No. 52
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F O R E S T PA R K
REVIEW
1969 state title team looks back PAGE 9
Allied Wastee contract extended PAGE 4
DECEMBER 25, 2019
@FP_Review @ForestParkReview
D209 supt. resigns to take another job Rodriguez will leave for Zion-Benton Township High School By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
Proviso Township High Schools District 209 Supt. Jesse Rodriguez is resigning to take the superintendent position at Zion-Benton Township High School District 126. The District 126 school board approved a three-year contract for Rodriguez at a meeting on Dec. 17. He’ll leave the district on June 30, 2020, and start in his new role at Zion on July 1, 2020. “This is a life-changing opportunity,” Rodriguez said in an interview on Dec. 18, adding that the move will allow him the opportunity to work five minutes from where he lives and devote more time with his family. Rodriguez said that his son will be a senior at the high school in the fall. The superintendent’s decision comes less than a year after the D209 school board voted 4-3 in favor of granting him a new 5-year contract that would have entailed his annual base salary growing to $257,648 by 2023, district records show. Theresa Kelly — the board’s longest serving member who voted against the contract, arguing that it was too long — said at the time that the contract was the lengthiest she’d seen during her some two-decades-long tenure on the board. On Dec. 18, Rodriguez, who was hired to a See RODRIGUEZ on page 15
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
HOLIDAY DELIVERY: Forest Park firefighters Ken Hriensaitong, Andrew Weber and Mark Maylath load vehicles with boxes of food during the Community Center’s annual food and gift delivery for needy families on Dec. 23.
Making sure the holidays are special
Shop With a Cop partners police with neighborhood kids By MARIA MAXHAM Staff Reporter
Forest Park second-grader Theo Christo
A good neighbor has your back.
talked about nothing but Shop With a Cop for weeks as it approached. “He was looking forward to it so much,” said his mother, Samantha Christo. “I don’t remember the last time he was so excited about something.” The day started at the Westchester Police Department on Dec. 14, where a few dozen kids from Westchester, Bellwood, Maywood and Forest Park, including
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Theo, gathered with police officers from those same communities for donuts and photo opportunities. From Westchester, at least 30 squad cars from the participating towns, with the kids riding along, drove in a procession down Roosevelt Road — sirens blaring — to the Walmart at 1300 Desplaines Ave. in See HOLIDAYS on page 15
Meaghan Good, Agent 7601 Madison Street Forest Park, IL 60130 Bus: 708-366-3779 meaghan@goodsgotyou.com