The Best Prom Money Can Buy: South Suburban Spending Habits

We called on our Facebook fans from across the south suburbs to share their experiences dealing with the expenses of a modern-day prom.

For some, prom is the apex of the high school experience—a magical night to be looked back on with nostalgia for years to come.  Others will recount it as a well-dressed ten-ton credit-munching beast with an insatiable appetite. Like Matt L., our Tinley Park Patch Facebook friend who needed several years to pay his parents off his parents for a prom loan. Or Angie S. from Oak Lawn, who budgeted $1,000 for her daughters’ proms (and she’s not the exception). Now that we’re in the heart of prom season, we were curious to hear about the financial impact prom has on the typical south suburban family. How much does the average local family spend on a prom, and who foots the bill? Mom and dad, or the teens? We asked our Facebook fans across the …

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New Mother McAuley President Chats With Patch

Patch sat down with new Mother McAuley President Mary Acker Klingenberger for an exclusive video interview.

Three weeks ago, Mary Acker Klingenberger began her new job as president of Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School. Patch’s Dan Lambert recently sat down with Klingenberger to chat about her return to her alma mater, her role as president and her plan for the school. Klingenberger is a 1975 graduate of Mother McAuley. She was previously director of gift planning at Hinsdale Hospital and was a regional president Harris Bank of Hinsdale. Now, she's taking her background in fund raising and management back home. I love Mother McAuley and think it provided me with an opportunity to be fearless throughout my career. You can find the rest of the interview and exclusive video on Evergreen Park Patch.

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Photo Gallery: Lincoln-Way North Homecoming Parade

Lincoln-Way North High School continued its Homecoming Week tradition with its annual parade through the community on Sunday.

Lincoln-Way North High School kicked off its annual Homecoming Week on Sunday afternoon with a parade through the Frankfort Square community. Hundreds of student athletes, academic teams, marching bands, elected officials and community organizations marched. Other participants were the Frankfort Square Wildcats Football Association, the Summit Hill Junior High School Marching Band, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and the Frankfort Jaycees. The Phoenix will play Thornridge High School in the Homecoming game Friday night.   Get News Alerts and Facebook Updates From These Patch Sites:

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DeVry University Tinley Park Campus-Community Outreach

9:06 am on Monday, October 1, 2012

Nice Job L-W North!   more ›

Hectic High: Teens Sound Off On Their Schedules

Andrew High School junior (almost senior) Sarah Kenny and her peers comment on the often-hectic life of a high school student.

I’ve heard adults complain often enough about their jobs and the difficulty of raising kids and, shockingly, claiming that life would be easier as a high school student. As a junior at Andrew High School, I don’t have to deal with children, pay into Social Security, or work 40 hours a week, but I find the concept of high school as easy almost laughable. Taking out the drama that inevitably comes when the administration decides to lock 2,500 hormonal teenagers in a building for eight hours a day, the challenge of high school is still a heavy contender to trump adult life in the simple craziness of schedules. CLASSES The District 230 system offers honors level and advanced placement classes to its students, as well as an extra elective class…

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A Pre-Prom Checklist

Andrew High School student Austin Gomez goes over his to-do list the day of prom.

Since prom is tonight, it only makes sense that my Facebook News Feed is updating every five minutes with statuses of excitement for the big day. This also means that every other one of those statuses involves pre-prom anxiety due to unfinished business. After all, prom is arguably the biggest dance in high school, so it naturally makes sense for some last-minute scrambling. I, however, find myself in a very comfortable position. Regardless of the fact that this dance has cost me around four times as much as all the other high school dances combined, I am more prepared than I have ever been for a formal Friday night. This may be because I haven’t had to worry about hunting people down to collect money for prom weekend, any tuxedo/floral-…

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Prom? Cakes, Chalk and YouTube Videos Among Creative Ways Tinley Teens Popped the Question

Victor J. Andrew High School senior Austin Gomez rounds up some of the clever ways his classmates asked their dates to prom. Austin will be charting his own path to prom on Patch.

In middle school, asking a girl to the eighth-grade dance proved itself to be the epitome of awkwardness for a guy. In high school, however, asking a date to homecoming or turnabout isn't nearly as harrowing. Come the time when most teenagers come out of their shells, the ideas behind asking as a date for prom become much more inventive and less panic-attack inducing. Now that prom is rearing its head around the corner, it's time to up the ante on ways to ask. Simplicity may have been a virtue for any of the previous dances, but several students at seniors at Victor J. Andrew High School have already chosen to ask their dates in extravagantly original ways for prom: As for me, I decided that the greatest way to ask my girlfriend would be …

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Paul Dailing

12:07 pm on Monday, April 11, 2011

I got the codes for the school phone system and called a class I knew the girl was in and had the teacher put her on the phone.   more ›

2011 Election: Tinley Park's High School Districts

Figure out your high school board elections using our election pages.

Tinley Park has three public high schools, each in a separate school district and each of those with a separate April 5 election. This article is your starter guide to our 2011 Election page. The links below will take you to the election pages. From there you can learn the issues behind each race and click through to learn the platforms and backgrounds of every candidate for the three districts. Walk into the polling place confident on April 5. You'll know what you're talking about. Who should click here? Parents of Tinley Park High School students or any taxpayer who lives within Bremen 228's boundaries. In Tinley Park, that's roughly everyone east of Harlem Avenue and north of 183rd Street. How many candidates? Five candidates for four …

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Fight After Oak Forest-Tinley Park Basketball Game Leads Cops to Gun

Two 20-year-old Markham men were charged with weapons possession after police responded to a fight following Tuesday night's boys basketball game at Tinley Park High School.

Two Markham men were arrested on weapons charges after a fight Tuesday night in the Tinley Park High School parking lot after a basketball game against rival Oak Forest, police said. Lavoyce Bays, 20, of the 3200 block of 160th Street, and Maurice Wesley, 20, of the 3200 block of 161st Street, both of Markham, were each charged with unlawful possession of a weapon after witnesses to the fight said one of the men was armed, police said. "The basketball game was just letting out and there was a fight in the parking lot," police Cmdr. Steve Vaccaro said. "The fight had pretty much broken up by the time police got there." Officers responding to the fight found a handgun in a vehicle parked in the lot, Vaccaro said. Wesley was arrested on the …

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VIDEO: Scenes From the D230 Mid-Year Graduation

On Thursday night, 43 students from District 230's three high schools – Victor J. Andrew, Carl Sandburg and Amos Alonzo Stagg – participated in the district's mid-year graduation, opting to move on a semester ahead of their fellow 2011 seniors. For a full list of the students, see the program brochure located below the video. Click here to go back to "Graduation Central"

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