Park Junior High School is a

Junior high school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

La Grange Park La Grange Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 13,475. Geography La Grange Park is located at (41.829831, -87.869233). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, La Grange Park ha ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The current student populace is around seven hundred students.

History

The building which is now Park was originally the girls' school for Nazareth Academy, which has since become co-ed and moved just a few blocks down

Ogden Avenue Ogden Avenue is a street extending from the Near West Side of Chicago to Montgomery, Illinois. It was named for William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago. The street follows the route of the Southwestern Plank Road, which opened in 1848 acr ...

. In 1974, District 102 purchased the building and renovated it; Park opened in the following year, named after the street bordering its west side, Park avenue, replacing its old 7th & 8th grade school, Oak Avenue School, located a few blocks away from Memorial Park, La Grange Park. Since then the Oak Avenue School building has been sold to the

American Nuclear Society The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is an international, not-for-profit organization of scientists, engineers, and industry professionals that promote the field of nuclear engineering and related disciplines. ANS is composed of three communities ...

, who now uses it as their headquarters. Four elementary schools feed into Park: Ogden Avenue School in La Grange; Cossitt School in La Grange; Forest Road Elementary School in La Grange Park; and Congress Park Elementary School in Brookfield. After graduating from Park, students typically attend

Lyons Township High School Lyons Township High School (often referred to as LTHS or simply LT) is a public high school located in Western Springs, Illinois (South Campus), and also in La Grange, Illinois (North Campus). Lyons Township is a co-educational high school and ...

in nearby La Grange or Nazareth Academy, also in La Grange.

School Administration

The current principal is Mr. Jerome Green, who has attained the principalship since 2023, with the assistant principal being Mrs. Lynette Campbell.

Art Gallery

Park currently houses the esteemed Nettie J. McKinnon Art Collection, which has been loaned to the school by the district for a twenty-five-year period. The collection started as a school legacy project at nearby Oak School in the 1940s, but when evaluated in 2002, it was found to be worth more than $1.4 million. The gallery is said to only hold artwork worth over $10 thousand. Park is only one of two elementary schools in the entire

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to have a full, private art collection. During the 1929-1930 school year 7th and 8th graders sold magazines to the community at large, and the profits from those sales were used to purchase artwork for Oak Avenue School. The paintings were in Oak Avenue School until 1975, where they were moved to Ogden Avenue School, being moved to its current location in 1978.http://www.saltcreekart.org/about.htm

References

{{Reflist

External links

School web site
*Wikipedia article Educational institutions established in 2003 La Grange, Illinois Public middle schools in Cook County, Illinois 2003 establishments in Illinois