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As Hinsdale High School District 86 Board members plan to discuss COVID-19 mitigations at tonight's meeting, parents are upset with the way district leaders have responded to a court's temporary restraining order invalidating the mask and vaccine mandates for public schools. Parents and staff received an email Sunday from Superintendent Tammy Prentiss and board President Terri Walker in response to Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow's decision on the suit, which names some...
By Pamela Lannom [email protected] Hinsdale Central Red Devils usually don't sing the praises of alumni of their arch rival, Lyons Township High School. Unless that alum is Kelly Watson, Central's assistant athletic director and this year's assistant AD of the year. In nominating Watson to the Illinois Athletic Directors Association, Central athletic director Dan Jones described her as the most humble and hardworking person he has known in his 33-year career in...
The pressure was on in the second round of "Chopped Casino Royale: Finale." Chef Grace Goudie, a Hinsdale native, had incorporated two of her basket ingredients into a spaetzle. But she couldn't get it to pass through the colander in order to cook it. "The judges are yelling at me to plate," she says on the episode. "This spaetzle isn't turning out the way that I cook spaetzle. I have to get something on the plate. The adrenaline is insane." She eventually does get the...
Growing up, I didn't know a soul who was adopted. As an adult, I find the opposite is true. Adopted people are everywhere. At a 2020 Community Revue cast party, I learned that two of my castmates were also adopted and that all of us either had met or hoped to meet our birth parents. A fellow cast member came up and asked us what we were discussing so intently. "Finding our birth parents," one of us offered. She promptly turned around and headed back to the bar. One of the folk...
When Alisa Messana was a sophomore at Elmhurst College, she got a call she never expected to receive. The woman on the phone identified herself as a volunteer for Truth Seekers in Adoption and asked Alisa her full name and to confirm that she was born Jan. 2 at Swedish Covenant Hospital. "She proceeded to tell me my birth parents had married, had two other children of their own and were interested in having a relationship with me if I was interested," Messana said. Messana...
Hinsdale High School District 86 is not an environment in which Valda Valbrun of Valbrun Consulting wants to work. Superintendent Tammy Prentiss read a letter at the Jan. 13 school board meeting from Valbrun, indicating she was withdrawing her firm’s name from consideration. Valbrun had been recommended by the district’s Culture and Equity in Leadership Team, which seeks to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant to work in the district. In her statement, Valbrun cites her treatment when she came to Hinsdale for...
Growing up in New Jersey, Jay Moody started playing lacrosse before he was in kindergarten. "I was always an East Coast guy before I was transferred out here to Chicago," the Hinsdale resident said. "I thought lacrosse was going to be bigger out here than it was." The father of three boys was disappointed that the only acknowledgment he saw of his favorite sport were signs saying, "No throwing lacrosse balls" at the elementary schools. So Moody, a former Brown University...
While editing Lisa Seplak's column (facing page) and checking whether "Gen Zers" requires any punctuation (it does not), I stumbled upon some interesting facts about Generation Z. They are more racially and ethnically diverse than any other generation and on track to be the most well-educated generation yet, according to the Pew Research Center. Gen Zers are more likely to have a college-educated parent than previous generations. Most Gen Zers live with married parents and,...
Name: Braxton Bokos Year: senior Hometown: Oak Brook When did you first start swimming? Competitively I started swimming around 6 or 7 at the Oak Brook Stars. My parents come from a heavy swimming background, so they had me in the water from two weeks out of the womb. What do you enjoy most about the sport? I enjoy the team bonding you get through the sport. I come from a triathlon background as well, and the one thing I enjoy most about swimming is you have a lot of...
At first, 8-year-old Elise Allison noticed she was feeling tired and getting bruises on her legs. When she turned very pale after running in the Madison School Dash & Bash at the end of September 2019, her mom, Maggie, knew something was wrong. A trip to the doctor confirmed every parent's worst fear. Elise had cancer. Leukemia. After receiving the devastating news, Maggie and Matt had to figure out how to deliver it to their daughter. "That night when we came home, my mom...
I've spent a lot of time thinking about 2021 lately. It's not because I'm stuck in the past. Like many of you, I was ready for a new year (and the hope that it would be our last with COVID as a pandemic!). I've been immersed in 2021 for two reasons. 1. We are preparing our "Year in Review" special section, which will be inserted in next week's paper. So we've been looking for quotes and photos to include on the pages of this annual retrospective. 2. We are selecting our entrie...
Teachers in Hinsdale High School District 86 now have a contract through June 30, 2023. The current contract was set to expire June 30, 2022. The extension was ratified by Hinsdale High School Teachers Association members the week of Jan. 3 and approved by the school board Jan. 13. The board, administrators and teachers union representatives have had a positive dialogue about the future of the contract, according to a joint statement released last week. “While that dialogue has reinforced our commitment to working toward a...
For high school girls interested in playing hockey, there's a new game in town. The Burlington West Grizzlies offers girls at Hinsdale Central and five other high schools the chance to compete in the Metro Girls High School Hockey League. And competing is just what they are doing. The team is in third place in the Founders League as it heads into the final games of the season. "We're a pretty competitive team," said Greg Whalen, president of the program's seven-member board....
The Hinsdalean continues this week with its conversations with leaders of local nonprofit agencies reflecting on the challenges and opportunities 2021 presented. Community Memorial Foundation, Hinsdale Humane Society and Wellness House were featured in a Jan. 6 article. Candor Health Education The virtual realm has become an inviting one for Candor Health Education for delivering their programs to students. Barb Thayer, Candor’s executive director, said more than 90 percent of its courses on sex and drug education was p...
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases is evident everywhere you look in town, from the hospital to the schools to the central business district. Saying Amita Adventist Hinsdale Hospital is stressed is an understatement, said Dr. Bela Nand, chief medical officer of Amita Adventist Medical Centers Hinsdale and La Grange. "Our numbers are steadily increasing and what's even worse, they are occupying ICU and are getting ventilators," Nand said. While patient counts are rising, the...
Every January, The Hinsdalean checks in with the leaders of the seven nonprofit agencies in the village, inviting them to share highlights of the previous year and a wish for the new one. This is the first of two installments. A Jan. 13 article will feature Candor (formerly Robert Crown), HCS Family Services, Hinsdale Historical Society and The Community House. Community Memorial Foundation As COVID-19 continued to mean greater demand for services for many nonprofits in 2021, Community Memorial Foundation continued to...
Name: Max Pohlenz Year: senior Hometown: Hinsdale When did you first start wrestling? Freshman year I tried out for the Mock Trial team and I got cut from that. I was looking for something to do in winter and (coach Jason) Hayes gave me the recruiting pitch and I was hooked. What do you enjoy most about the sport? It's very much a sport where you get what you put in. I think that idea to win and be good at something through sheer will and sheer mental toughness just kind of...
Five young men who have been friends since kindergarten were able to celebrate a significant accomplishment last month. The five members of Boy Scout Troop 52 - Sal Aguilar, Patrick Kelly, Marty McCann, Bryan Phlamm and Conor Richards - all earned their Eagle Scout rank at a Dec. 21 ceremony. They are among only 4 percent of Boy Scouts nationwide who achieve this rank. The Hinsdalean spoke to each of the Scouts about their projects and their advice to younger Troop members...
I blame my timing. I didn't finish my list of "21 for '21" nonresolutions until February of last year. Had I had the month of January to work on them ... Of course, when I wrote about the suggestion by Gretchen Rubin, author of "The Happiness Project," to consider writing such a list as an alternative to resolutions, I was impressed with her laissez faire approach to her own list. The things she did were marked "DONE." The things she did not do were marked "no." There were no...
Village officials had expected to buy a new snowplow for $190,000 and have it delivered this year. Now, the Peterbilt Model 578 will cost $220,134 — 16 percent more — and not be available until the second quarter of 2023. “The manufacturer has informed public services that lead times and prices have drastically increased due to supply chain issues,” Trustee Neale Byrnes said at Tuesday’s Hinsdale Village Board meeting. “Not a surprise with everything that is going on in the news.” The new plow is intended to replace Truck No....
In three days I will be the mother of a teenage girl. While I’ve had 13 years to prepare for this moment, I still find it taking me by surprise. Each December as Ainsley has gotten older, I’ve wondered whether I’ve reached the final year of what has been an annual tradition since she was little. On the issue before her birthday, I use this space to pen her a letter. I thank her for her patience in letting me write about her — and yours for your willingness to read about h...
Name: Luke Speziale Year: senior Hometown: Hinsdale How did you get interested in bowling? I really enjoyed bowling growing up. I just saw one of the posters for the sign up (at school). I ended up missing the tryouts completely. The team needed freshmen my freshman year, so I just showed up to some of the practices. What do you enjoy most about the sport? Just getting to bowl with some fun people, some of my friends, and just making good relationships over time. How have you...
It's the most wonderful time of the year - with kids off school for two weeks and hours of time that most likely will be spent on electronics, unless something more interesting is on the agenda. Fortunately, Chicago offers a host of opportunities to have fun with the whole family - and it's just a short car or train ride away. O Tannenbaum Explore rich holiday traditions at the Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry...
Supply chain issues and labor shortages have caused prices to go up for Phase 3 facilities improvement projects at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South high schools, to the tune of $4.8 million. Hinsdale High School District 86 Board members approved 15 bid packages Dec. 16 (see sidebar) that came in at just over $28 million, or about 21 percent higher than expected. “Obviously the bid results were out of line with what we were anticipating in the budget,” Chief Financial Officer Josh Stephenson said. Four of the packages did...
December is a month for caroling, baking cookies — and approving tax levies. This week, Hinsdale’s village and school boards are approving their tax levies, or annual requests for property tax revenue. These levy requests will be submitted to the clerks in Cook and DuPage counties, who will translate them into the tax rates (see related coverage on Page 7) that will appear on homeowners’ bills in 2022. Village of Hinsdale The village’s 2021 tax levy of almost $14.3 million is a considerably larger amount than officia...
