Oak Park and River Forest High School

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox school

Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) is a public four-year high school located in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It is the only school in Oak Park and River Forest District 200. Founded in 1871, the current school building opened in 1907.

History

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OPRF has been listed six times on NewsweekTemplate:'s top 1500 American public schools, as measured by the Challenge Index.<ref name="2009 Newsweek">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, the school was ranked #549.<ref name="2009 Newsweek"/> In previous years, the school was ranked No. 554 (2003), No. 590 (2005), No. 501 (2006), No. 688 (2007), and No. 379 (2008).<ref name="2009 Newsweek"/>

Boundary

The boundary of the school district, which is also the attendance boundary of the high school, includes all of Oak Park and almost all of the area of River Forest (the remaining part of River Forest is zoned for recreational/institutional use). The feeder school districts are Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and River Forest School District 90.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} - List of school districts in Cook County in text form. See: Zoning map of River Forest.</ref>

Traditions

School crest

The school's crest is a shield divided into three sections.<ref name="school crest and motto">Template:Cite book</ref> The top left section depicts an acorn cradled in the leaves of an oak tree.<ref name="school crest and motto"/> The bottom section consists of horizontal wavy lines, suggesting a flowing river, while the right section depicts a group of three trees which represents a park or forest (thus incorporating the town names "Oak Park and River Forest").<ref name="school crest and motto"/> The top left section is separated from the other two sections by a wide divider inscribed with the school's motto ΤΑ Γ'ΑΡΙΣΤΑ (Those things that are best).<ref name="school crest and motto"/> The crest has been a symbol of the school since 1908.<ref name="school crest and motto"/>

Scholarship Cup

Instead of having a valedictorian, the high school presents the Scholarship Cup. This is an award presented to the graduating seniors with the highest weighted GPA in their graduating class after the seventh semester of enrollment (though transfer students remain eligible for the award, provided they have been in attendance for five semesters before the Cup is awarded.<ref name="Student honors">Template:Cite book</ref>

Academics

In 2008, OPRF had an average composite ACT score of 24.5, and graduated 94.3% of its senior class.<ref name="2008 school report card"/>

The following Advanced Placement courses are offered (not complete list):

Course Notes Course Notes
Economics one class covering Microeconomics & Macroeconomics<ref name="Business courses">Template:Cite book</ref> English Language and Composition <ref name="English courses">Template:Cite book</ref>
Art History <ref name="arts courses">Template:Cite book</ref> English Literature and Composition <ref name="English courses"/>
Studio Art <ref name="arts courses"/> Music Theory <ref name="arts courses"/>
American History <ref name="social studies courses">Template:Cite book</ref> Government <ref name="social studies courses"/>
European History <ref name="social studies courses"/> Psychology <ref name="social studies courses"/>
Statistics <ref name="mathematics courses">Template:Cite book</ref> Calculus separate courses in AB & BC<ref name="mathematics courses"/>
Computer Science AB<ref name="mathematics courses"/> Environmental Science <ref name="science courses">Template:Cite book</ref>
Chemistry <ref name="science courses"/> Biology <ref name="science courses"/>
Physics C<ref name="science courses"/> French <ref name="world language courses">Template:Cite book</ref>
Italian <ref name="world language courses"/> Spanish <ref name="world language courses"/>
Government <ref name="social studies courses"/> Government <ref name="social studies courses"/>

Student life

The arts

The school sponsors several organizations related to studying or performing in the arts.

On October 31, 1907, the school's orchestra was founded. While more common today, Oak Park was one of the first schools to offer credit toward graduation based on student performance in the orchestra.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Among the school's music and song groups are a gospel choir, two jazz bands, a jazz combo, a marching band & color guard, and a pep band.<ref name="clubs & activities">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The school also has three choirs during the school day: a Treble Choir, a Chorale, and an A Cappella Choir. The school also has three small audition-only student-run groups, which include 5–6 members each. These are Take 5 (boys only), Six Chicks (girls only), and No Strings (girls only). There are also medium-sized groups that are school-sponsored, a Madrigals group, and a show choir.<ref name="clubs & activities"/> It also has a concert band, symphonic band, wind symphony, wind ensemble, two concert orchestras, and a symphony orchestra.

The school supports a dance team in addition to a drill team and an orchesis group.<ref name="clubs & activities"/>

The school supports eleven stage productions each year, including four in the "Little Theatre," four in the black box "Studio 200" space, a summer and winter musical, and a one-act festival.<ref name="clubs & activities"/> In support of these, the school not only sponsors a stage crew group for students but a theatrical makeup group as well as a props group which locates for purchase, repairs, and maintains props for the various productions.<ref name="clubs & activities"/> Student performers who excel in their performance may be inducted into the school's chapter of the International Thespian Society.<ref name="clubs & activities"/> The Studio 200 group supports students interested in gaining experience in all aspects of theatrical production from acting and directing to publicity and the technical arts.<ref name="clubs & activities"/>

Among the plastic arts the school supports an overarching arts club in addition to a photography club and wheel throwing club which emphasizes pottery.<ref name="clubs & activities"/>

The School has a speech team that participates in the IHSA State series.<ref name="clubs & activities"/>

The school also has an annual literary and arts publication, The Crest, which has been active since 1893 and displays student-submitted art and poetry and is published and distributed to students toward the end of every school year. It is one of the oldest high school literary journals in the country.

The school has one of the country's oldest continuous high school television news programs, Newscene, founded in 1982. The television program won a Cable ACE in 1983 for innovative programming for Extra-Help an early live interactive program. Today the school's high-definition television studio hosts numerous productions, including the award-winning weekly newsmagazine show Newscene Live, airing throughout the metro area on Comcast Cable.Template:Citation needed

In January 2018, a docuseries entitled America to Me premiered at the Sundance film festival. Director Steve James and his team followed several OPRF students throughout the 2015–2016 school year to explore the relationship between race and education.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Activities and clubs

OPRF offers over 60 clubs and activities ranging from athletic and artistic to competitive academic, cultural, and social awareness.<ref>A complete list can be found here here Template:Webarchive.</ref>

Among the clubs which are affiliates or chapters of notable national organizations are ASPIRA, Best Buddies, Business Professionals of America, Cum Laude Society, and Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA).<ref name="clubs & activities"/>

An intramural program sponsors both competitive round robin and free play competitions in basketball, badminton, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, and flag football.<ref name="athletic academic requirements">Template:Cite book</ref>

The following non-athletic teams have won their respective IHSA-sponsored state competition or tournament:<ref name="IHSA season summaries">Season summaries for OPRFHS; ihsa.org; accessed July 30, 2009</ref>

  • Chess: 1984–85
  • Debate: 1982–83, 1983–84

Athletics

OPRF competes in the West Suburban Conference. The school is also a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), which governs most sports and competitive activities. The school's teams are stylized as the Huskies.

The school sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in: basketball cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and water polo.<ref name="OPRFHS Athletic teams">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Young men may compete in baseball, golf, football, and wrestling, while women may compete in badminton, cheerleading, gymnastics, and softball.<ref name="OPRFHS Athletic teams"/> While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors teams for young men and women in lacrosse, in addition to a field hockey and drill team for young women.<ref name="OPRFHS Athletic teams"/> While not sponsored by the school, there is an ice hockey team affiliated with the school.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

By school policy, athletes must maintain a "D" average (1.0 GPA) to compete and practice.<ref name="athletic academic requirements"/> If in any week, an athlete has any cumulative grade in any course that is not a minimum of a "D", that student is required to attend an academic support program for a minimum of 10 minutes the following week.<ref name="athletic academic requirements"/> Any athlete finishing two consecutive quarters of study with a failing grade are ineligible for athletic participation.<ref name="athletic academic requirements"/>

The following teams have won their respective IHSA-sponsored state championship tournament or meet:<ref name="IHSA season summaries"/>

In the school's early history, there were semi-annual "field days" in which students competed for various prizes (medals, cups, sporting equipment, cakes) in events such as the hammer throw, three-legged race, sack race, and obstacle course.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref> In the absence of regularly scheduled interscholastic meets, the Cook County High School Athletic Union hosted an annual field day which would involve top athletes from the county schools.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref>

From 1900 to 1913, Oak Park was a member of the Cook County League. In 1913, the schools outside of Chicago were expelled, and formed the Suburban League, which would eventually splinter off into several smaller leagues, one of which was the West Suburban Conference.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Before this was made illegal by the IHSA, Oak Park, on at least one occasion, played games against college teams, such as a baseball game on April 4, 1900, when Oak Park lost to Northwestern University (then known as the Purple), 1–27.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1927, the school constructed a 219 ft x 128 ft (67 m x 39 m) fieldhouse at a cost of $750,000. It contained four inside gymnasiums, two swimming pools, an indoor track, and seating for 1,000 people. The facility helped Oak Park build a champion track program and helped other area schools promote indoor track and field as a sport.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Through the end of the 2008–09 school year, the boys track & field program holds state records for state championships, top 3 finishes, and top ten finishes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Starting in 1930, the school hosted the "Oak Park Relays", a track & field competition that grew into the largest in the Midwest, with nearly 1,500 athletes from 63 school competing in 1960.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 1963, the field was 1,340 athletes from 77 schools, and was now the largest high school indoor track meet in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> By 1964, the field rose to over 1,900 athletes from 95 schools.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Despite the school's successes in track & field, the school did not have an outdoor track, and by 1998, the indoor cinder track was no longer in competitive condition.<ref name="102298 article">Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The school entered into a partnership with Fenwick High School and Concordia University to construct a new outdoor track on the campus of the university.<ref name="102298 article"/>

The OPRF lacrosse program is one of the three oldest high school programs in the state of Illinois.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

While water polo would not be sponsored by the IHSA until 2002, Oak Park High School sponsored a team at least as early 1901, playing a match against the Armour Institute (later renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology).<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref>

In 1905, in the wake of a student killed in a football game, Oak Park's (and several other schools') school board voted to cancel the remainder of the season and ban football from the school.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref> In 1907, football was restored in Cook County, however Oak Park refused to rejoin the league.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref> Instead, Oak Park competed as an independent team.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref>

From 1904 to 1906, Danny Roberts was the state champion among the roughly 300 girls' teams in the state.<ref name="IHSA bans girls basketball">Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 1907, the Illinois State High School Athletic Association (previous name of the IHSA), banned all girls from participating in inter-school basketball because "roughness is not foreign to the game, and that the exercise in public is immodest and not altogether ladylike."<ref name=autogenerated1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Oak Park was thus denied a fourth state title.

OPRF was, with DePaul University, one of two sites for men's and women basketball games during the 1959 Pan American Games.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref>

In 1961, the pool at OPRF was used for the annual Canadian-American Invitational swim meet. Among those competing were Tom Stock, Ted Stickles, and Joan Spillane.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Notable alumni

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Letters and journalism

Fine and performing arts

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Science

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  • Winifred Cameron, astronomer at NASA 1959–1984<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Sports

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  • Robert Halperin, 1960 Rome Olympic bronze medal winner and 1963 Pan American Games gold medal yachting medalist; college and professional football player; one of Chicago's most-decorated World War II heroes; chairman of Commercial Light Co., and a co-founder of Lands' End.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and 2022 Winter Olympics<ref name="oakpark.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (bronze medal at the 2022 Olympics)<ref name="oakpark.com"/>

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Other

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Notable staff

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References

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