HR0429 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0429 LRB096 12988 KXB 27101 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate the staff, students, and faculty of Oakland Elementary School in Antioch on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the school; and

WHEREAS, Oakland Elementary School opened in 1958 and only 10 of the 17 classrooms were open; Oakland has educated a half-century's worth of students on what was once farmland between Antioch and Lake Villa; and

WHEREAS, The office was updated six years ago, and in 1978 a library was added, as well as a science room and a teacher's lounge; and

WHEREAS, The modern-day Oakland building sits on property that has housed a school since 1910, when a wood-frame classroom opened its doors; the original facility was replaced by a 30-by-40-foot brick structure in 1921, before the current building was constructed; when the building opened as a kindergarten-8th grade facility the week after Labor Day in 1958, it featured nine faculty members, and its eighth grade class numbered 17 students; and

WHEREAS, The school is now a 2nd-5th grade school; there are currently 40 members of the staff, and 500 students require the auxiliary use of four portable classroom units; and

WHEREAS, Longtime staff members include Carol Forrest, who has worked in the office for 25 years, and cafeteria worker Clara Svoboda, who has worked at the school for 39 years; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the staff, students, faculty, and all those who have fond memories of Oakland Elementary School on this momentous occasion; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Oakland Elementary School Principal Kerstin Santarelli as a symbol of our respect.