Local News

Senior citizens walk the halls of H-F High

H-F senior breakfast MT101018_web
Homewood-Flossmoor High School guests at an Oct. 10   senior breakfast and tour listen as teacher Mark
  Ciesielski, left, explains the training and projects   students complete in the Viking TV studio. (Photo
  by Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)

These seniors may walk a little slower than the senior students in the building, and they definitely carry different memories of high school than the Class of 2019, but the District 233 senior citizens visiting Homewood-Flossmoor High School left with positive impressions.
 

Nearly 200 members of the senior community walked the halls of H-F Wednesday, Oct. 10, after enjoying a breakfast and hearing from administrators.
 
Among them was John Flanagan, who transferred from Bloom High to H-F when it first opened in 1959.  He later served on the District 233 school board for 12 years.
 
Walking the halls, Flanagan pointed out where, in his day, the H-F building ended. 
 
“We didn’t have a swimming pool,” among other amenities available to students today, including television and radio studios, a theater, and the North Building.
 
“This was very nice. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,” said Bob Barker of Homewood, who toured with his wife, Pat.  After getting a look at the gym, the Viking TV studio and the auditorium, Barker said, “Everything that I saw today was completely new to me, and I was blown away.” 
 
Phyllis Pelt of Hazel Crest is familiar with the high school through her grandchildren. She is proud of her Class of 2019 grandson Jalen Robinson of Homewood, who is on the track team, and was one of 13 students from across the country selected for a broadcasting program in New York because of his work on Viking TV.  Two other grandchildren are graduates of H-F.
 
Peggy and Jim Dunlavy will celebrate the 2019 graduation of the last of their five grandchildren. They came to the breakfast to “get news about the school and what it’s doing.” 
 
Linda Stanford of Flossmoor doesn’t have grandchildren in the district, but she decided to attend the event because “I hear a lot about H-F, so I thought it’d be a great experience.”
 
Parker High School in Chicago did have music and art programs when 104-year-old Mary Cantway of Homewood graduated, but there also was an emphasis on cooking and sewing. She said girls in her class made their own dresses for graduation.
 
She was pleasantly surprised to hear H-F offers a culinary program and fashion design in its Applied Academics program.