Mother's Day Wednesday Journal, May 2, 2018
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JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Oak Park native tracked Golden State Killer Staff Reporter
April 24 was a good day for the family of the late Michelle McNamara, who grew up in Oak Park and River Forest. It was the day police in California announced they’d captured a man they believe to be the Golden State Killer. McNamara, who died in 2016, posthumously published a book in February, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” about the serial killer and rapist she dubbed the Golden State Killer, who committed 12 murders and dozens of rapes, among other crimes, in the 1970s and 1980s. Earlier this week, McNamara’s widower, celebrated standup comedian Patton Oswalt, was in the Chicago area promoting the book when the Sacramento Police Department was arresting Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 72. DeAngelo was a former police officer, who worked at the Exeter, California, police department from 1973 See COLD CASE on page 13
Vol. 38, No. 41 ONE DOLLAR
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Star watch A stargazer checks out the waxing ‘gibbous’ moon last Thursday during Telescope Night at Fox Park in Oak Park. NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Mark Benson invites community on the last Thursday of each month.
Michelle McNamara’s interest in true-crime writing began with 1984 murder in Oak Park By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER
May 2, 2018
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
D97 hiring staff to meet student mental health needs
$1M request is first since referenda, passing of state’s new school funding law By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
The Oak Park Elementary Schools District 97 Board of Education is poised to hire additional staff and make personnel changes that will cost around $1 million. According to D97 officials, the new
hires and replacements for the 2018-19 school year are designed to address the mental and emotional health challenges that are becoming increasingly common among students in the district’s general population. The staffing plan, the district’s first since the successful passage of two funding referenda last April, is also one of the first major spending decisions made by D97 officials with Illinois’ new school funding formula in mind. The district plans to hire 12 new full-time staff -- including one student
support specialist, four new social workers, one school psychologist, three interventionists and four special education teachers. In addition, two new assistant principal positions will replace student support specialists at Irving and Holmes schools. At the April 24 school board meeting, a small group of school social workers and psychologists said that they must juggle meeting the needs of special education students with an increasing number of See STAFFING on page 14