A suburban high school is dealing with issues that include a series of fights and bus shortages.

In 2019, the school board voted to close Rich East High School in Park Forest. Since the pandemic, this is the first time all the kids are back in the consolidated schools and parents say it is causing sheer chaos.

Former Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton’s son is leading an effort to save and repurpose his father’s childhood home. Last Sunday, one of those potential sites, Proviso East High School, dedicated its Social Justice Room to Hampton, a 1966 graduate. The dedication in the school auditorium featured impassioned speeches by Illinois senate majority leader Kimberly Lightford and house speaker Chris Welch, among many others.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sponsored the resolution. Our own article on this is here.

Armed with a new “disparity study” mandated by a federal judge, the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity agreed to extend one of the last surviving construction set-aside programs in the country but keep the set-aide percentages the same.

Through December 2027, the city will earmark 26% of all construction contracts for companies owned by minorities and 6% of those contracts for firms controlled by women.