18 minute read
Big Week
August 17-24 BIG WEEK
Plant Swap & Flower Bouquets
Stop by the library for an outdoor event. Bring a houseplant and take a houseplant. (Please bring no more than one. Must be small to medium sized and in a pot.) Create a small ower bouquet to put out in the community to take part in For the One
Who Finds Me. Questions? Email Alicia at ahammond@fppl.org. 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.
Encanto Sidewalk Obstacle Course
This obstacle course is based on the Disney movie. All the prompts will be wheelchair-friendly. If you need audio instructions, please contact the Forest Park library before the event. In case of rain, it will be rescheduled for Sunday, September 18. 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.
Joel Paterson & Friends
Wednesday, Aug. 17, 7 p.m., FitzGerald’s
This eet- ngered guitar picker erases the boundaries between blues, jazz, country and 1950s rock & roll. His music is the perfect live soundtrack for sipping sodas (and other libations) on the outdoor patio, especially on a summer evening. 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.
Forest Park Together Walking Group
Creative Open Gym (a/k/a Art Club For Adults)
Tuesday,uesd Aug. 23, 7 p.m. - 12 a.m., Outta Space
Are you an arAre you an artist, dabbler, creator, crafter or just someone ti who wants to chill, chat and explore arwho wants to chil t? The Creative Open Gym is for you. Bring your own aris for you. Bring yo ts & crafts supplies, projects or just walk in and fool around with our supplies provided. Bar is walk in and fo open– delicious cocktails, local tap beers and spirits will open– de be owing. Febe o aturing guest DJs and live music as well on Tuesdays. $5 suggested donation, 6840 32nd o St., Berwyn.
Neighbors in Forest Park get together to explore the neighborhood on foot. Weather permitting, everyone will meet in the vestibule. 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.
Meditation Circle Listing your event
Saturday, Aug. 20, 10 - 11 a.m., Forest Park Public Library The Meditation Circle is an opportunity to learn the basics of mindfulness meditation within the support of a monthly drop-in group. A meditation instructor will provide simple steps to get started, answer questions, and facilitate a guided meditation session. 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.
Forest Park Review welcomes notices about events that Forest Park groups and businesses are planning. We’ll work to get the word out if you let us know what’s happening by noon Wednesday a week before your news needs to be in the newspaper. ■ Send details to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, 60302 ■ Email calendar@wjinc.com
District 91 budget process results in a surplus
Security cameras will go to Forest Park Middle School, Field-Stevenson
By IGOR STUDENKOV
Staff Reporter
Forest Park School District 91 currently expects to end the 2022-2023 school year with a surplus of around $9.5 million, according to the preliminary budget unveiled during its Aug. 11 board of education meeting.
Under state law, school districts must present preliminary budgets for public review 30 days before adopting the final one in September. Assistant Superintendent of Finance Robert Hibbird told the board that the budget will undergo several adjustments before the final approval, including some new hires and up-to-date information on investment earnings. The board will hold the budget public hearing on Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Forest Park Middle School, 925 Beloit Ave., with the vote taking place during the regular meeting, which will start at 7 p.m. at the same location.
Under the preliminary budget, the district expects to spend around $8.35 million on salaries for teachers, with around $2.1 million going toward benefits. Another $1.87 million in salaries and $261,256 would go toward salary and benefits for support services. About $1.86 million would be spent on supplies and materials. The district also expects to spend $75,000 on community services.
Hibbird said the district expects to spend at least $44,000 on professional teacher development programs, with $35,000 of that going toward two-year training with Oakland, California’s National Equity Project. The coaching organization describes its mission as “increasing the capacity of people to achieve thriving, self-determining, educated, and just communities.”
The district expects property tax revenue to increase by 5% and a $3,000 increase in interest earnings. It assumes that D91 would get at least $1.35 million from the state — the minimum it is entitled to under the funding allocation formula — and at least $431,433 from regular federal grants for school lunch programs and services to low-income students and students with special needs. The preliminary budget notably doesn’t include federal stimulus fund allocations.
The district also expects to get $205,000 in Corporate Personal Property Replacement tax revenue, one of the taxes the state collects on local taxing bodies’ behalf. There are a few unknowns, including the ultimate outcome of the property tax appeals.
Hibbird told the board that several factors may change, including what the interest payments would actually look like and how many teachers they end up hiring. The district still needs to hire a kindergarten teacher, some instructional assistants and the Assistant Director for Special Education. Hibbird also said the salaries for certain “designated employee groups” may be adjusted. Later during the meeting, he mentioned that one of his long-term priorities is taking a deep dive into “our finances, how we distribute funds along our schools, among different subgroups of students.”
The board approved the release of the preliminary budget without discussion.
Examples of school security cameras.
D91 purchases security cameras
District 91 voted unanimously on Aug. 11 to approve the purchase of 10 exterior and interior security cameras for Forest Park Middle School and Field-Stevenson Elementary School.
The two schools are located at 925 Beloit Ave., with a hallway connecting the two. This year, the elementary school will welcome students from GrantWhite Elementary, which closed after last school year. While the full contract wasn’t publicly available by deadline, according to the board agenda, the contract went to Downers Grove-based ITR Systems, which submitted the secondlowest bid.
Robert Hibbird, asst. supt. of finance, said neither school currently has security cameras. ITR already handles school security, so having them install cameras made sense. He also said the lowest bidder had issues with meeting prevailing wage laws and their license costs added an extra expense in the long run.
Hibbird described the cameras as part of the long-term effort to improve district security. He said D91 is currently looking into putting cameras on buses, something, he said, that bus drivers have long requested. The board may vote on that in either September or October.
Board President Kyra Tyler said she wanted to assure the parents and the school community that they had nothing to worry about.
“One thing I want to make clear — it can feel like, oh my gosh, we’re getting cameras,” she said. “[We are] trying our hardest to control our environment in the way that keeps our students and staff as precisely safe as possible. This is really about true safety, as opposed to just surveillance.”
The ABC’s of Alcohol according to Dave Hudson
A DALL-E driven picture book completes a cocktail trifecta
By MELISSA ELSMO
Oak Park Eats Editor
Forest Park resident and playwright in residence at The Actor’s Garden, 909 S. Lombard Ave. in Oak Park, Dave Hudson, turned his attention to cocktails during the pandemic. A cocktail enthusiast and historian, Hudson transformed his passion for mixology and storytelling into a miniature libation library. His most recent book, “The Alcohol ABC Book,” is a whimsical picture book for cocktail lovers — it joins “A Year of Magical Drinking: Cocktails in the Time of Covid” (co-authored with his wife Gigi Hudson, owner of the Actor’s Garden) and “A Year of Magical Drinking: Another Round” self-published in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
A writer of original musicals, Hudson put his wordsmithing to use when coming up with the playful alliterative text in “The ABC’s of Alcohol.” To illustrate the book, he turned to DALLE, an innovative AI program that creates detailed art images based on natural language instructions. Hudson prompted the program to create pictures like “a unicorn drinking an unusual cocktail,” “A jackalope drinking some Jack Daniels” and “a penguin Drinking a Pimm’s Cup.” The resulting images are fanciful and fun making the book a whimsical addition to any bar cart.
Those looking to test out Hudson’s cocktail recipes should also grab copies of his “Year of Magical Drinking” books. Hudson’s first cocktail book, based on a year of Covid imbibing, enjoyed a week as the number one small cookbook on Amazon in December 2020. The second book (“Another Round”) takes Hudson’s love of spirit history further by focusing on specific distilleries and offering multiple price points for spirits used in his original recipes.
“The dirty secret no one wants to believe is that all vodka is the same,” said Hudson matter-of-factly. “It’s true. It’s all the same; you pay extra for branding. The same cannot be said for other spirits like whiskey, bourbon and gin.”
Hudson started out as a wine cooler drinker before graduating to craft beers and wine; in time he found his way to cocktails and began digging into the history behind the spirits he had grown to love. He is already working on his fourth book dedicated to gradually building a bar cart. It is a serious book as compared to The Alcohol ABC’s but reflects Hudson’s nuanced and thorough approach to his passion projects. He is quick to point out that cocktails are meant to be fun, but there is a meticulousness required when crafting them. “There is truth in the statement that drinks are poured, and cocktails are measured,” said Hudson. “Serious cocktail makers always measure.” On a recent afternoon, Hudson whipped up his Ruth Bader Gins-Burg cocktail while enthusiastically sharing tips for mixing a memorable drink. He pontificated about the value of using an angled measuring jigger and spoke about the benefits of holding a shaker horizontally when mixing a drink. He spoke confidently about the importance of using fresh fruit whenever possible as he cut and juiced a grapefruit for use in the gin and Aperol cocktail.
When asked to pick his perfect cocktail Hudson hesitated only briefly before naming an Old Fashioned as his drink of choice. He opts to use Evan Williams Bottled in Bond bourbon in his classic cocktail made with a smidge of simple syrup and garnished with an orange slice and a Luxardo cherry. Served up in a sturdy rocks glass the cocktail is an
MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor Dave Hudson toasts his trio of cocktail example of measured simplicity. cookbooks. “Drinking has been a ritual since the dawn of time,” said Hudson. “For me it is about the ritual of gathering around the glass and what it means to share that experience. Our grandfathers told stories around these spirits.” To contact Hudson to speak about the history behind popular cocktails or host an interactive cocktail conversation email him at pourealtions@gmail.com. His books are available for purchase on Amazon.
MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor PARTY TALK: Dave Hudson mixes a cocktail in his Forest Park yard during a discussion of Alcohol ABC’s.
Drink the Book
Ruth Bader Gins-Burg
Sip the drink Dave and Gigi crafted to represent September 2020 in “A Year of Magical Drinking: Cocktails in the Time of Covid.” According to Hudson, the addition of Aperol, an Italian aperitif, is a subtle nod to Ginsburg’s longtime friendship with fellow Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. 1 ½ ounces London dry gin ¼ ounce sweet vermouth ½ ounce Aperol 1 ounce grapefruit juice
Shake over ice and pour into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lime twist. Serve on a 6-inch doily with a 4-inch circle of felt in the center.
Hudson’s tip: Take care to add the ingre-
MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor e Ruth Bader Gins-Burg, recipe courtesy of Dave and Gigi Hudson
dients to the shaker before adding ice to prevent excess dilution. Hold the cocktail shaker horizontally when shaking to maximize contact with the ice.
Library plans repairs, elevator upgrade
Lower level to be closed throughout the fall
By IGOR STUDENKOV
Staff Reporter
Forest Park Public Library construction projects will leave the lower level closed until at least November.
The construction project involves relatively routine interior repairs. The library will replace the elevator, redo lighting and ceiling tiles on both the lower and main level, replace doors at the entrance, repair windows and do some other minor maintenance. But this will require the lower level to be closed during the first phase of the project, which is expected to last between September and November. Patrons will still be able to check out materials from the lower level – they will just have to ask staff to retrieve them.
According to the project page on the library website, the first phase will be lowerlevel renovations, while the second phase will involve repairs on the main floor. During Phase 1, the main community room will function as a temporary youth services space. While most of the teen materials will still be stored at the lower level, some will be available in the community room. Because of this, patrons won’t be able to reserve the Community Room starting Aug. 26.
Shelly, the library turtle, will be moved to the community room during Phase 1.
The lower level will reopen during Phase 2, but areas may be closed off during repairs. This phase includes completely replacing both the outer doors and doors to the main area and replace the windows, along with the same kind of lighting and ceiling tile replacement as the lower level.
The study rooms and the Quiet Room will be off-limits to general patrons starting Aug. 26 and Sept. 1, respectively, for the duration of the project. Those spaces will be used as temporary staff spaces and for storage. While the Young Adult Lounge will continue to operate, it will be used for library board meetings and some programs.
Due to the space limits, the library won’t be accepting donations starting Aug. 26.
The library is paying for the project using its existing capital budget. While it hopes to complete Phase 2 by December, the project page is upfront about the fact that construction projects sometimes run into unexpected delays, so it may take longer.
“Phase 2 is scheduled to begin in November but the exact timeline will depend on how smoothly Phase 1 goes,” it states. “The entire project is scheduled to be completed in December assuming we do not run into unanticipated delays.”
The project comes two years after the library completed $1.35 million in more substantial renovations. Most notably, that included expanding the youth services section, building a new, separate teen area on the main floor, moving the staff offices to the lower level, and building four new study rooms and the Quiet Room. The project began in September 2019 and ended in late January 2020.
The library describes this project as smaller updates that it was always planning to do a few years down the line.
FILE
ADVERTISE 708-524-8300 • FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW.
You can get local news delivered right to your email in-box. Sign up for FREE at ForestParkReview.com
Innogen, virtuous princess of Britain, played by Lauren Littlejohn, is being tricked by villainous Iachimo, played by Forest Parker Avery Fountain, while Innogen ’s husband, Posthumus, is exiled during the Forest Park eatre performance of “Innogen, a Heroine’s Journey. ”
Innogen, a Heroine’s Journey
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at the Forest Park Theatre production in The Grove.
SHANEL ROMAIN/Sta Photographer
Above: Director Richard Corley watches the production come to life during the Saturday night performance at the Altenheim Grove.
Le : With picnic baskets and lawn chairs, a crowd enjoys a cool summer evening of outdoor theater.
Forest Park Review, August 17, 2022 9 Hot-headed, self-absorbed Clotten, played by Emma Linder, is looking to pick a ght as First Lord (Tyler Sherrod) looks on.
Above: e audience along the perimeter of the open air theater in e Grove follows the proceedings.
Le : Forest Park eatre recreates the British royal family with King Cymbeline (Phillip Fox) on stage.
D91 SPENDING
Stimulus funds for services
from page 1
air conditioning at Field-Stevenson, 925 Beloit Ave., and Grant-White, 147 Circle Ave., elementary school buildings, replacing student Chromebooks and other devices, and funding for teacher training and “parent university” certification programs. While the board members didn’t object to the plan overall, they did ask the district administrators to come back with a more detailed breakdown of how the money would be spent and how many expenses are directly related to the effects of the pandemic.
According to the presentation by Dr. Robert Hubbird, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, the district spent $186,259 in ESSER I funds to cover salaries for summer school teachers and instructional assistants, to pay for technology to facilitate remote learning, cover the cost of subscriptions to online remote learning services, and to pay for cleaning supplies and Personal Protection Equipment.
Hubbird said that, for $703,107 in ESSER II funds, the district plans to spend $75,825 to buy 116 replacement Chromebooks, $390,280 to continue paying the four instructional coaches the district hired to address learning loss, a total of $127,000 to cover summer school and afterschool “extended learning opportunities” for students, and a total of $110,000 to improve air conditioning.
“When I spoke to our superintendent of buildings and grounds, [he said] there are still some AC units that need to be repaired,” Hubbird said.
Kyra Tyler, school board president, said that while Grant-White isn’t being used as a school starting this, 2022-2023 school year, the district still plans on using the building for another purpose, but didn’t elaborate any further. The Review previously asked the district what the building would be used for but hasn’t received a reply by deadline.
Hubbird told the board that the district is still working out the details of what “extended learning opportunities” the district will offer, but he used a possible collaboration with the Forest Park Theater as an example.
For around $1.58 million in ESSER III funds, the district plans to spend a total of $201,654 on replacing 232 Chromebooks, tablets and other devices. Hubbird said that, given the 3-4 year life cycle of those devices, as well as the greater use they got during the pandemic, some replacement is inevitable. He also mentioned that the funding could be used to buy security cameras.
A total of $197,000 will be spent to continue summer school and extended learning programs. It would use $611,280 to hire additional coaches and social workers, as well as cover eight days of staff professional development. $75,000 would go toward mentoring and tutoring, and $125,000 would be used to help implement a STEM curriculum for all grade levels.
A total of $255,741 would be used to pay for cleaning and PPE related expenses, with $110,741 of that going toward the salaries of two additional cleaning staff who were hired in the wake of the pandemic.
Finally, $87,639 will be used for staff development and “parent university” – free certification courses offered to all district parents. Hubbird said that it could include Microsoft program certifications and C++ programming certification.
Board secretary Monique Cotton-Yancy said that she appreciated that the district wants to spend money on training teachers to tutor and support students, noting that many parents simply can’t afford private tutoring services. [This way] you can just send kids to public school,” she said. “It’s amazing, it’s awesome, and I’m happy to see it budgeted.”
NEWS
FLASH!
Sign up for FREE at ForestParkReview.com
