• approved the consent items: minutes of November 13, December 3, 5, and 11, 2001; personnel recommendations; financial reports, and FDSE actions;
• approved the proposed changes for the Academic Catalog for 2002-03;
• approved Policy 1125, School Auxiliary Organizations; Policy 1130, Use of Mailboxes and Mailing Privileges; Policy 1140, Gifts to the District; Policy 5114, Suspension and Expulsion; and Policy 5117A Student Transfers to and From Non-District Schools; for first readings;
• adopted the Annual Tax Levy and Resolution for Working Cash;
• adopted a Resolution of the Board of Education of Consolidated High School District Number 200, Cook County, Illinois, Submitting a Proposition to Increase the Educational Tax Rate to the Voters at the General Primary Election to be held March 19, 2002, at the rate of 2.95%;
• adopted a resolution to submit a proposition to increase the educational tax rate of the School District from 2.3% to 2.95% to the voters at the General Primary Election to be held on March 19, 2002 and approved that the Secretary of the Board of Education be directed to calculate and include the financial information in the Notice of Official Election Ballot and Certificate of Public Question;
• accepted with gratitude a donation to the Cancer Care Foundation and Aid for Cancer Research in the name of OPRFHS by the Oak Park Auto Parts as a thank you for being its customer; a donation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, a book titled Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time” to the OPRFHS Library; a donation of a complete set of Britannica Great Books from Nancy and Ed Quinn; a donation of a 1987 Mitsubishi car to the auto and mechanic class by Mr. & Mrs. Brian Reilly; a monetary donation of $800 to OPRFHS’s golf team by OPRFHS alumni who are members of the Oak Park Country Club which represents their winnings at an alumni golf outing against Fenwick; a donation of a 1986 Buick LeSabre to the auto and mechanic class at ORPFHS by Craig Slocum.
• adopted resolution authorizing OPRFHS’s Release as the Administrative District for the Federation of Districts for Special Education;
• approved a Resolution Authorizing Notice to Remedy;
• appointed Sherlynn Reid, Robert Senechalle, and Martha Trantow to District 200’s Local Ethics Commission for the 2002 calendar year; and
• expelled student 12/20/01-16 for the remainder of Semester I of the 2001-02 school year, but held the expulsion in abeyance contingent upon completion of enrollment and regular attendance at B.E.A.C.O.N.S. Academy for the remainder the 2001/02 school year and ongoing counseling; and amended student 12/11/01-11’s expulsion to be for the remainder of first semester of the 2001-02 school year, but hold the expulsion in abeyance contingent upon completion of tutoring for the remainder of the first semester of the 2001-02 school year, which would result in sufficient credits and requirements to graduate in January.

Reports Dr. Bridge reported on 1) the steps that are being taken to decide where to hold the 2002 graduation ceremony; 2) the 124 students who were honored at the Human Relations Awards ceremony; 3) the growing success of the eighth-grade parent breakfasts, lunches, and tours; 4) the successful second annual Pile Your Plate with Pasta; 5) the National Council of Teachers of English award given to student David R. Ojala; 6) the 11 “Student of the Quarter” award recipients; 7) the Illinois High School Theater Festival selection of OPRFHS’s “Patient A;” and 8) the students involved in the ALL-STATE production of “The Pirates of Penzance.”