When an energetic Erin Mathias enrolled her child at Mohawk Primary Center three years ago, she noticed the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization was, as she recalls, almost non-existent.
She, her husband, Kevin, and their blended family of five children spanning 11 years had just moved from Merrillville, Indiana to Park Forest, and although she wanted to have an active hand in her children’s educational opportunities, the door to such an opportunity seemed to be shut.
That’s why she quickly became active in what then was a group of two people.
“At first it was only us, Angela Watts and me,” Mathias said.
Suddenly Mathias became the vice president of the two-person PTO, and along with President Watts they began the difficult task of creating a fully functioning group dedicated to improving the quality of school life for children.
It took time and hard work, but she says the now energetic Mohawk PTO numbers 20 people
It was done, she said, through flyers informing parents of school events and urging them to attend. No school event was overlooked. Holidays, Mathias noted, were observed in part through “goody bags,” created by Mathias and the growing ranks of PTO members.
Late last year, Mathias enrolled in a seminar on the duties of a school board member.
With the departure late last year of Elementary District 163 Board member Christina Depee for Phoenix, Mathias, was drawn to the idea of working for the entire district, which comprises seven schools in a district encompassing portions of Park Forest and Chicago Heights.
She was also taking “tons of workshops” on topics including what a board position involved, the threat of misleading Artificial Intelligence information that could infest a classroom and how to counter that danger.
All this, she says, “ignited a fire within me.”
As a parent living in the district, she sent a notarized letter to the School Board as her application.
Eight candidates were interviewed. Mathias was not told she was selected until the night before last week’s board meeting, when she was sworn into the office.
In recent years, the District 163 School Board was often a chaotic mixture of angry board members publicly engaging in raucous debates with each other, along with allegations of nepotism, controversy over the high salaries of superintendents and complaints that some board members and parents do not live in the district.
On the surface, the board, under the leadership of longtime member Margaret McDannel, appears to have quieted some of the passions, but this is an election year, and we all know how that works.
For the record, seven candidates, including sitting board members Walter L. Mosby III, Jacqueline Jordan and Allison McCray, are running for reelection. Others on the ballot are Karen Kendrick, Ciji Collins, and Tegan Usher.
E$$ay conte$t
Dating back to its inception in 1949, Park Forest and military service veterans have held a hand-in-glove relationship. That is the reason the village’s Veterans Commission is again holding an essay contest publicizing that relationship.
There is a $100 prize waiting for a fifth through eighth grader living in Park Forest who submits the winning entry in the annual essay contest .
One can choose any one of three topics for entry: (1) explain the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day; (2) the reason Park Forest was planned for veterans returning from World War II; or (3) discuss what the village is doing for veterans in today’s world.
You can get more information on the rules and an entry blank at Village Hall, the Park Forest Library or, according to Mike Gans of the Veterans Commission, they should be available at your school by the end of the week.
This is the third year the Veteran’s Commission has sponsored the contest in an effort to make students aware of the history of the village, which celebrated its 75th birthday last year.
History is lost if our children cannot understand how we got where we are.
Jerry Shnay, at jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
