Police Pick Up Teen With Pellet Gun Near Hilda Walker School

The Tinley Park intermediate school was in lockdown as police apprehended a boy with a pellet gun Thursday afternoon. No was hurt, and police say the incident is being handled as a juvenile case.

Hilda Walker Intermediate School was in lockdown Thursday afternoon, and a 15-year-old boy with a pellet gun was taken in to custody after Tinley Park police received a 911 call from a school staffer, according to village and school officials. A 911 call around 2 p.m. Thursday, April 18, reported someone with a gun was seen around the back of Hilda Walker School, said Pat Carr, director of Tinley Park's Emergency Management Agency. A school staff member witnessed the teen with the pellet gun near a park and water retention area behind the school, said Tinley Park Police Chief Steve Neubauer. The staff member told police the teen was aiming the gun at the water but had not fired it, Neubauer added. The lockdown of the school was issued once…

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District 161 Offers Extra Counselors After Parent Death, Murder Charges

The district is also in the process of organizing a fund and donation center to benefit the children of Bahaa and Nermeen Sam, who lost their mother on Wednesday.

Summit Hill School District 161 is offering its students extra support from district social workers and counselors after the father of three district students was charged with the first-degree murder of their mother. Nermeen Gamel Sam, 38, was found dead on Wednesday outside her home in the 19700 block of Silverside Drive, according to Tinley Park Police. Will County prosecutors say Bahaa A. Sam, 47, beat his wife to death with a weight lifting curling bar as their 4-year-old son watched. Bahaa and Nermeen are the parents of four children, three of whom attend school in the district at Summit Hill Junior High School, Hilda Walker Intermediate School and Dr. Julian Rogus Elementary School. District social workers and counselors were removed…

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Summit Hill Schools Aim to Prevent Bullying With New Programs

Summit Hill Junior High School and Hilda Walker Intermediate School have both introduced new bullying prevention initiatives in recent months.

Summit Hill School District 161 is expanding its approach to bullying prevention and awareness with several new programs and initiatives in the 2012-13 school year. Summit Hill Junior High School is currently promoting multiple ways for students to report instances of bullying anonymously. SHJH Principal Pam Hodgson said that anonymity is important to junior high-aged students who might feel pressured not to be “the snitch,” and that the new incident reporting options accommodate those needs. Students who want to report an incident can do so by filling out a form online, which is then emailed to a counselor. Concerned students can also call a phone number that connects to the school social worker’s voicemail to leave an anonymous message…

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informed

1:59 am on Monday, April 1, 2013

Metro, (Sean Doyle) You really need to get a life! You just don't stop....so sad.   more ›

LOCAL VOICES: Hilda Walker Pep Club Cheers on Wildcats Basketball

Fourth and fifth grade students at Hilda Walker Intermediate School show their support for the Wildcats by making posters and organizing cheers.

Hilda Walker Students Show Support for Girl With Brain Disease

Students donated one dollar each to draw a butterfly for Rachel Swallow, who suffers from inflammatory lesions on her brain.

Hilda Walker Intermediate School students recently came together to support their schoolmate, Rachel Swallow. The 11-year-old Mokena resident suffers from a brain disease known as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and has been comatose since March 26. Multiple community benefits and fundraisers have been organized in recent weeks to help cover Rachel’s medical costs. Hilda Walker students each donated one dollar to draw a butterfly for Rachel. Their donations will to towards supportiing Rachel and her family. The butterflies will be given to Rachel while she is at home recovering. For more information about Rachel’s condition and how to assist the Swallow family during her recovery, go to the For the Love of Rachel website and Facebook …

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Family Fun Day to Help Raise Money for Girl With Brain Disease

Raise it for Rachel is a benefit to help the family of Rachel Swallow with the 11-year-old's medical costs. Rachel, a sixth-grader at Hilda Walker School, was diagnosed with a serious brain disease after falling into a coma-like state in March.

The Frankfort Area Jaycees are sponsoring a family fun day this weekend to help raise money for an 11-year-old Hilda Walker Intermediate School sixth-grader who has been in a coma-like state since March. Raising it for Rachel will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the pavilion at Union Creek Community Park, which is behind Hilda Walker School. Food, games, raffles, music and other activities will be part of the fundraiser for Rachel Swallow, a Mokena girl who was diagnosed with a brain disease known as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and has been comatose since March 26. Rachel has undergone numerous medical procedures and surgeries to treat the inflammatory lesions on her brain, and she will need more medical care and in-house…

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D161 Principals Switch Schools

With the closing of Mary Drew Elementary School and the upcoming retirement of Hilda Walker's principal, officials move some district principals to new schools.

Some Summit Hill School District 161 principals will be in new schools next year thanks to some reshuffling announced in a district e-mail Wednesday. Sent by Supt. Barb Rains, the e-mail, which went to district parents, laid out the following changes (the parentheses denote the principals' previous schools): The moves come as district officials continue to adjust to the closing of Mary Drew. At the time, board members and Rains said Klein, Mary Drew's principal, would stay in the district. Another reason for the changes are because of the retirement of Hilda Walker Principal Jan Zevkovich at the end of this school year. The following is the complete text of the e-mail: Dear Parents, As we begin to plan for the next school year, I would …

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Joe Vince

10:19 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012

@Donny and @Spring 2013: Unfortunately, this story broke late yesterday (http://patch.com/A-sxhT), which meant I was covering it instead of being at the meeting. The agenda was light, however. Largely, I'm sure, because the district is on spring break (which probably explains the absence of some of the board members). I'll be following up today. Joe Vince Local Editor, Frankfort   more ›

School News: District 161

School Board Honors Summit Hill Baseball Team

Plus: Junior high symphonic band has fall and Veteran Days concerts on tap.

School News: It's not all about board of education meetings in local school school districts. We round up what students and staff are up to in the schools that make up Summit Hill School District 161. Have some School News for D161 to pass along? E-mail local editor Joe Vince at joev@patch.com. The Summit Hill School District 161 Board congratulated the Summit Hill Junior High boys baseball team at the board's Oct. 12 meeting. The Spartans earned second place in the Class 3A Illinois Elementary School Association state tournament in East Peoria, falling to Germantown Hills in the final round, 4-2. Two performances are on tap in the next few weeks for the Summit Hill Junior High Symphonic Band. On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the band will participate…

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D161 Continues to Outpace State in ISAT Scores

Summit Hill district schools also saw an overall increase in the percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards on the state test.

The percentage of Summit Hill School District 161 students passing the 2010-11 Illinois Standard Achievement Test rose by about 1 percent from last year and remained 10 percent higher than the state. Overall, 92.1 percent of students scored at the meets standards and exceeds standards levels of the ISAT, up from 91.3 percent last year, said Interim Superintendent Barb Rains at Friday's continuation of September's last school board meeting. The state's 2010-11 percentage at those levels was 82 percent, she said. READ: D161 Board Hires New Assistant Superintendent "We're very proud of our students' achievements and the work being done by our teachers and administrators being done in conjuction with our parents," Rains said. "And we realize …

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D161 2011-12 Budget Passes Amid Two Members' Objections

Board members Sean William Doyle and Dee Molinare oppose budget approval, saying cost cuts should be considered to eliminate $2.1 million shortfall.

Even with an early recess sparked by arguments over potential Open Meetings Act violations, the Summit Hill School District 161 Board was able to attend to some agenda items at Wednesday's meeting at Summit Hill Junior High School.  The board approved the district's 2011-12 budget, but not without two members opposing it. Board members Dee Molinare and Sean William Doyle voted against the budget, citing concerns over its $2.17 million shortfall.  READ: Board Argues Legality of Sept. 17 Special Meeting The budget projects about $38.6 million in spending but only about $36.5 million in revenue. Last year, the district operated on about $36.6 million with about $36.9 million in revenue, resulting in an approximately $288,000 surplus. Areas of…

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