Glen Crest Middle School

Glen Crest Middle School is a public, coeducational middle school, and is part of Community Consolidated School District 89. Its location is in Glen Ellyn, DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and the surroundings are entirely suburban. It is approximately 26 miles west and slightly south of downtown Chicago. On a clear day, it is possible to see the Sears Tower from the hill in back of the school. Glen Crest itself is located across from an undeveloped plot of land which is heavily wooded. Talk remains that this land has been bought by Peace Lutheran Church, and that the woods will be knocked down in order for them to build a larger Church across from the school.

Facilities

The facilities at Glen Crest are all part of one centralized building. Outside, there are several distinct areas. There is the parking lot and the main entrance, and then there is an Upper Field and a Lower Field, both of which are utilized frequently by Physical Education classes. In all, there are seven baseball diamonds, and two main fields on which to play soccer or football. Both fields have perimeters which are used for running either the 800 meter run or the 1600 meter run during Physical Education. For recess, the students are allowed to be either on a certain part of the black top adjacent to the parking lot, or on the upper field. However, due to the bitter Chicago cold, students remain inside for most of the winter (or whenever the temperature is below 30 F.) Inside, there is a basketball court in the Upper Gym (the larger of the two gymnasiums) where all home basketball and volleyball games (at the interscholastic level) are played. The old bleachers in the gym could hold just under 500 people. In August of 2008, the wooden bleacers in the gym were replaced with more modern plastic bleachers. The second gym, commonly referred to as the Lower Gym, is used primarily for Physical Education classes. The school's fitness room has traditionally been in the room between the Lower Gym and the Large Group Space, but in 2007, an elevator was built where the speech room was in the library and now takes of the former location of the fitness room. In turn, the fitness room was moved to the Large Group Space. One of the most eye-catching aspects of the school is the mural of the Spartan Alliance in the Upper Gym, which takes up almost the entire western wall of the gymnasium. There are six different hallways in Glen Crest, five on the upper floor and just one on the lower floor. All of the rooms in the first hallway are labeled 100 and something (i.e. 106, if it is the sixth room in that hallway, or 112, if it were the twelfth.) The rooms in the second hallway all start with 200, in the third hallway they start with 300, etc. In the 500 Hallway is the Library Media Center (LMC.) Also in the LMC (besides the library itself) is a computer lab with 35 computers. There are additional computers throughout the library, in most of the classrooms, and in the other two computer labs. Over the Summer of 2007 the Home Arts room has received new Dell modules for the students. Some popular module programs remain, but less popular modules like "We the People" have since been removed. A conservative estimate is that Glen Crest houses 200 computers. All computers are run through a central server. Air Conditioning of the school is currently not present except in the Upper Gym, Spartan Hall, LMC, Faculty Lounge, and the Main Office rooms. The estimated cost of installation and running of the A/C amounts up to over a million dollars. Upgrades to the school could begin as early as Summer Recess of 2008.

chool Spirit

The official mascot of Glen Crest Middle School is the Spartans. The official colors are blue and white. Their biggest scholastic sports rivalry are O'neill Middle School [http://www.dg58.org/schools/on/index.htm] , an in-conference school from the town of Downer's Grove, Illinois and Hadley Middle School, located in Glen Ellyn, IL. The school song was originally "On Wisconsin" with revised lyrics, but the school song is currently being changed. Among the possible candidates, the University of Notre Dame Victory March seems to be the favorite. Glen Crest occasionally has "Spirit days" in which students are encouraged to participate by wearing certain colors according to grade level, or by dressing like a teacher on Dress-Like-a-Teacher Day. There are generally at least three all school dances with different themes throughout the year. There is typically a fall dance, or the Red Ribbon Dance, a winter dance, previously called the Winter Wonderland Dance, and a spring dance which has acquired several different names. There are many exceptions to this basic pattern, but that pattern applies to most years. In between, there are Ice Cream Socials, the much-loved Faculty vs. Student game, in which some of the more athletic members of the faculty take on the eighth grade basketball team, and some YMCA Nights, intended only for sixth graders. The school also had a Student Union, which worked to represent the students' ideas and feedback. The last Student Union President was Jake Hume, since the teachers that had been in charge didn't want the responsibility of dealing with another year of Student Union. The future of this remains unclear, as no teachers seem to want to step up to the challenge. This is unfortunate, as future leaders won't get a chance to show their skills.

Faculty

The principal at Glen Crest is Dr. Scott Stevens. There is one assistant principal, Mr. Todd Schrage. In all there are 90 full time faculty members(including nurses, secretaries, etc.). Glen Crest Middle School is now a Smartboard showcase school.

Extracurricular Sports and Activities

Note: This list is the most extensive list available, but the activities provided are always changing, so it is encouraged that you check the following site [http://www.ccsd89.org] for any updates. 1. Symphonic Band 2. Concert Band 3. Concert Orchestra 4. Chamber Orchestra 5. Intermediate Orchestra 6. Chorus 7. Boys Chorus 8. Cross Country 9. Girls Volleyball 10. Boys Volleyball 11. Cheerleading 12. Girls Basketball 13. Boys Basketball 14. Soccer 15. Intramural Basketball 16. Intramural Bowling 17. Intramural Soccer 18. Intramural Flag Football 19. Intramural Volleyball 20. Yearbook 21. Spartan Spirit Newspaper 22. Computer Club 23. Student Union 24. Math Club 25. Social Studies Club 26. Ecology Club 27. No Name Club 28. Kids Adapting for Kids 29. Drama Club 30. Scrapbooking Club 31. Chess Club 32. Step Club

History

Glen Crest Middle School was established in 1962, and has undergone multiple additions since then. In 1982, the Glen Crest Symphonic Band was chosen to represent Illinois in the Washington D.C. Fourth of July Parade. Three years later, Crest Views, the official Glen Crest literary magazine, was named best in Illinois by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Demographics

These demographics represent all of District 89, which includes four elementary schools and one middle school. All four elementary schools feed into Glen Crest. Asian: 10.1% African American: 9.1% Hispanic: 6.7% Multi-racial/ethnic: 1.9% Caucasian: 72% There are 2,200 students that attend a District 89 school, almost 900 of which attend Glen Crest.

chool Motto and Mission

The district prefers to have one motto for all the schools; "Learning for Life." The official mission of District 89 is as follows: "The mission of Community Consolidated School District 89 is to prepare our students for a successful future through continuous improvement of learning, satisfaction, and resource utilization. [http://www.ccsd89.org/UserFiles/File/board_of_education/policies/100.pdf] "

Referendum

To the best of my knowledge, the district is still under an 11 million dollar referendum passed in 1997.

Administration

Glen Crest students attend for only sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, a total of three years, before continuing on to high school (see Glenbard South). Each grade is divided into two separate teams to make class sizes smaller, and to provide for a more personalized learning experience. All your classes are taken with members of your team, and there is an entirely different set of teachers for each team (with the exception of Physical Education, Exploritories (i.e. music, art, health, computers, home economy), and Lunch.) It should be noted that teams are not divide by test scores or grades, but are picked randomly. The names of the six (two per grade) teams are: 1. Red team- 6th grade 2. Orange team- 6th grade 3. Yellow team- 7th grade 4. Green team- 7th grade 5. Violet team- 8th grade 6. Indigo team- 8th grade The team of Exploratory and Physical Education (mandatory in the state of Illinois)teachers is called the Exploratory team. Each team has a team leader (a teacher, usually one with seniority,) who conducts the team meetings. The team leaders are: Mrs. Roeske, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Pehta, Ms. Wojtas, Mrs. Joiner, Mr. Doyle, and Mr. Toppel.

chool Hours

School takes place Monday-Friday (with exceptions such as breaks and national holidays), starting in late August and ending in early June. Every day, students who ride the bus are let off of the buses at 7:50 am, and then stand in front of the school until the bell rings at 8:00 am. In case of inclement weather during the morning, students are moved into Spartan Hall until the bell rings at 8:00. They then have six minutes to drop off their stuff (the things they don't need for class) and get to their first period class (there are nine periods in a day.) The pledge is said over the intercom at around 8:06 pm and then the "Words of Wisdom", bits of advice from teachers to start off the day, are said. Class begins at 8:08. Each class period is 42 minutes, and then students have three minutes to get to their next class. School is let out at 2:50, and if students are staying after school they have until 3:00 to get to their activity. The afterschool activities are let out at 3:40 and then the Late Bus leaves at 3:50. Any students staying later than this must provide their own transportation. Glen Crest runs on a strict policy of closed campus and school rooms during the day. Students are allowed entry via buzz-in at 7:30 AM by one of the secretaries, either Mrs. Bruno or Mrs. Wall, and are required to show their pass to see their teacher or report immediately to the LMC. You are only allowed in between 7:30 and 7:35, and will have to wait until 8:00 if you miss this time slot.

External links

* [http://www.ccsd89.org School homepage]
*Teacher ratings [http://www.ratemyteachers.com/schools/illinois/glen_ellyn/glen_crest_middle_school]