Oak Forest High School
Encyclopedia
Oak Forest High School is a public high school
located in Oak Forest, Illinois
. It is part of Bremen Community High School District 228
which also includes Tinley Park High School
, Hillcrest High School
and Bremen High School. It serves most of the community of Oak Forest, as well as portions of Midlothian
and Crestwood
in Bremen Township
in the south suburbs of Chicago
in Cook County
.
1.3 million loan from the Illinois School Building Commission to begin first phase construction of the district's fourth high school. In August 1968, the Board of Education approved the new school's name, and in September, the architectural plans were approved. The construction contract was approved in March 1969, with the plan calling for an initial "first phase" of construction, and a second phase to be added on if necessary.
Oak Forest High School opened in 1971 as a remedy to the excessively high numbers of students attending the three other existing high schools in the district. Before the school had even opened, it became clear that the school would not be sufficient to contain the increasing student population. The district again turned to voters to approve a bond issue to add on to the school. After two failures, and threats of students needing to attend double shifts, the bond issue passed in December 1971.
On December 2, 1985, a fire broke out at the school causing severe damage to the school's electric systems. After missing a week of school, and with the building still not inhabitable, Oak Forest students were required to temporarily attend classes at Tinley Park High School with split shifts set up (Tinley Park students from 7 am to noon, and Oak Forest students from 12:40 to 6 pm).
Construction to the building in the summer of 2005 created a new Instructional Materials Center (IMC), which serves as media lab and library. Additionally, the space occupied by the old IMC was re-structured into additional classrooms, a move towards solving the approaching five-year deadline of the outdoor portable classroom mobile units (commonly referred to as the "trailers"). The room numbers have also changed.
score of 21.2 and graduated 97.3% of its senior class. The average class size was 20.2.
In accordance with the federal law No Child Left Behind, Oak Forest has achieved Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP). The school has no subgroups that meet the minimum number to be included in testing.
. Its teams are called the Bengals
. The school's teams participate in state championship tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association
(IHSA).
The school sponsors interscholastic teams for men and women in basketball
, bowling
, cross country
, golf
, soccer, swimming
and diving
, tennis
, track and field
, and volleyball
. Men may also compete in baseball
, football
, wrestling
, while women may also compete in badminton
, cheerleading
, and softball
. There is also a district water polo team which students from Oak Forest, Bremen, and Tinley park can compete with.
The athletic facilities include two gymnasiums (each with its own locker rooms), the smaller of which is predominantly used for wrestling. There is a small natatorium
for swimming classes and competitive swimming and diving. The main athletic field used for football, soccer, and track and field has permanent lights. Baseball and softball fields, in addition to tennis courts, round out the outdoor facilities.
The following sports teams have placed in the top four of their respective state tournament sponsored by the IHSA:
Among these 46 organizations are some groups of national notability with chapters or other representation at Oak Forest. These include: Science Olympiad
, Business Professionals of America
, DECA
, FCCLA, FHA, National Honor Society
, and Operation Snowball
.
The Group Interpretation team won the IHSA State Championship in 1977–78.
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
located in Oak Forest, Illinois
Oak Forest, Illinois
Oak Forest is a suburban city about south/southwest of downtown Chicago in Bremen Township in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 28,051 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. It is part of Bremen Community High School District 228
Bremen Community High School District 228
Bremen Community High School District 228 is a public four year high school district covering about in Bremen Township in southern Cook County, Illinois in the south suburbs of Chicago...
which also includes Tinley Park High School
Tinley Park High School
Tinley Park High School, TPHS or simply Tinley is a public high school located in Tinley Park, Illinois, approximately 30 miles southwest of Chicago...
, Hillcrest High School
Hillcrest High School (Illinois)
Hillcrest High School is a public four year high school located in Country Club Hills, Illinois. It is part of Bremen High School District 228 which also includes Tinley Park High School, Oak Forest High School, and Bremen High School....
and Bremen High School. It serves most of the community of Oak Forest, as well as portions of Midlothian
Midlothian, Illinois
Midlothian is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,315 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Midlothian is located at ....
and Crestwood
Crestwood, Illinois
Crestwood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,251 at the 2000 census. In April 2009 the Chicago Tribune reported that for 20 years the city had been drawing its drinking water from a well that was contaminated with toxic chemicals.-Geography:According to the...
in Bremen Township
Bremen Township, Cook County, Illinois
Bremen Township is one of thirty townships in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 109,575. It was organized in 1850 and is located southwest of Chicago, Illinois in southern Cook County...
in the south suburbs of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
.
History
In March 1968, taxpayers of District 228 approved a US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1.3 million loan from the Illinois School Building Commission to begin first phase construction of the district's fourth high school. In August 1968, the Board of Education approved the new school's name, and in September, the architectural plans were approved. The construction contract was approved in March 1969, with the plan calling for an initial "first phase" of construction, and a second phase to be added on if necessary.
Oak Forest High School opened in 1971 as a remedy to the excessively high numbers of students attending the three other existing high schools in the district. Before the school had even opened, it became clear that the school would not be sufficient to contain the increasing student population. The district again turned to voters to approve a bond issue to add on to the school. After two failures, and threats of students needing to attend double shifts, the bond issue passed in December 1971.
On December 2, 1985, a fire broke out at the school causing severe damage to the school's electric systems. After missing a week of school, and with the building still not inhabitable, Oak Forest students were required to temporarily attend classes at Tinley Park High School with split shifts set up (Tinley Park students from 7 am to noon, and Oak Forest students from 12:40 to 6 pm).
Construction to the building in the summer of 2005 created a new Instructional Materials Center (IMC), which serves as media lab and library. Additionally, the space occupied by the old IMC was re-structured into additional classrooms, a move towards solving the approaching five-year deadline of the outdoor portable classroom mobile units (commonly referred to as the "trailers"). The room numbers have also changed.
Academics
In 2007, Oak Forest High School had an average ACTACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
score of 21.2 and graduated 97.3% of its senior class. The average class size was 20.2.
In accordance with the federal law No Child Left Behind, Oak Forest has achieved Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...
(AYP). The school has no subgroups that meet the minimum number to be included in testing.
Athletics
Oak Forest is a member of the South Suburban ConferenceSouth Suburban Conference (Illinois)
The South Suburban Conference is a high school athletic and activity conference which comprises fourteen schools located in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois....
. Its teams are called the Bengals
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
. The school's teams participate in state championship tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...
(IHSA).
The school sponsors interscholastic teams for men and women in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, soccer, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
. Men may also compete in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
, wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
, while women may also compete in badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
, cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
, and softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
. There is also a district water polo team which students from Oak Forest, Bremen, and Tinley park can compete with.
The athletic facilities include two gymnasiums (each with its own locker rooms), the smaller of which is predominantly used for wrestling. There is a small natatorium
Natatorium
A natatorium is a term given for a building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building, although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building...
for swimming classes and competitive swimming and diving. The main athletic field used for football, soccer, and track and field has permanent lights. Baseball and softball fields, in addition to tennis courts, round out the outdoor facilities.
The following sports teams have placed in the top four of their respective state tournament sponsored by the IHSA:
- Badminton: 4th place (1979–80)
- Baseball: State Champions (1984–85)
- Basketball (girls): 4th place (1978–79)
- Softball: State Champions (2008-09)
- Volleyball (girls): 3rd place (1983–84, 1985–86); 2nd place (1979–80)
- Track & Field (boys): 4th place (2010)
- Competitive Cheerleading: 3rd place (2008-09 & 2009-10)
Activities
Oak Forest has 46 student organizations in fields ranging from community service to the arts and from academic competition to career related groups.Among these 46 organizations are some groups of national notability with chapters or other representation at Oak Forest. These include: Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is an American elementary, middle, or high school team competition which tests knowledge of various science topics and engineering ability. Over 6,200 teams from 49 U.S. states compete each year. Most teams compete in three levels of competition: regionals, states, and nationals...
, Business Professionals of America
Business Professionals of America
Business Professionals of America is a career and technical student organization that is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. BPA aims to develop leadership, academic, and technological skills in the workplace among students and leaders within the community...
, DECA
DECA (organization)
DECA, also known as Collegiate DECA on the college level) is an international association of students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service . DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing,...
, FCCLA, FHA, National Honor Society
National Honor Society
The National Honor Society is a recognition program for high school students in grades 10-12 in the United States and in several other countries...
, and Operation Snowball
Operation snowball
Operation Snowball is an international alcohol, tobacco and other drug use prevention program focusing on leadership development to empower youth to lead drug-free lives...
.
The Group Interpretation team won the IHSA State Championship in 1977–78.
Notable alumni
- Tim ByrdakTim ByrdakTimothy Christopher Byrdak is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the New York Mets. His previous major league experience came from to , when Byrdak played for the Kansas City Royals, an injury-plagued stint with the Baltimore Orioles, and one year with the Detroit Tigers.After playing for...
(class of 1991) is a Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
relief pitcherRelief pitcherA relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...
(1998–2000, 2005–present), currently pitching with the New York MetsNew York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
. - Jason FrasorJason FrasorJason Andrew Frasor is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball. He made his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in , and he had a 4.08 ERA in 63 games....
(class of 1995) is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher (2004–present) with the Chicago White SoxChicago White SoxThe Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
. - Rick GoreckiRick GoreckiRichard John Gorecki is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball.Gorecki was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 19th round of the 1991 Major League Baseball Draft. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1997 Major League Baseball expansion draft.-External links:...
(class of 1991) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. (1997–98). - Jimmy PardoJimmy PardoJimmy Pardo is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and host of the popular comedy podcast Never Not Funny.He is married to fellow comedian Danielle Koenig. They live in Los Angeles with their son Oliver...
(class of 1984) is a professional comedian who has made hundreds of television appearances including The Tonight ShowThe Tonight ShowThe Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
and That '70s ShowThat '70s ShowThat '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
, and has his own half hour special on Comedy CentralComedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. - George SaundersGeorge SaundersGeorge Saunders is a New York Times bestselling American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ, among other publications...
(class of 1976) is an acclaimed American writer of short stories and essays.
External links
- Oak Forest High school (official site)