Palos South Middle School Students Meet with Mayor during Field Trip

When adults think of school field trips, they may remember trips to the zoo, museum, or maybe even an afternoon at the symphony.

For the 100 students in Palos South Middle School’s Capstone Class, a recent field trip included taking a meeting with the mayor of Palos Park and scouting locations for community improvement projects they will work on throughout the 2023-24 school year.

Palos South Middle School Teachers Katie McDonough, Jeremy Mancilla, Ann Marie Ruprecht, and Brittney Kmiecik, supervise the year-long capstone program and were the chaperones for the day-long excursion at the end of September.

“We went to Palos Park Village Hall, and it was incredible,” said Ms. McDonough, whose been teaching at Palos South since 1998 of her students’ visit. Ms. McDonough said that students got a chance to meet with Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters, former mayor John Mahoney, as well as the village’s manager, and heads of its business department, public works, and parks and recreation.

“We expressed an interest in letting our kids partner with the Village and they were eager to help,” said McDonough noting that students learned about how the village operates and got to ask plenty of questions in their search for a topic to study for the next year. Their conversation centered on how the South students can help their community.

McDonough said that the eighth graders who sign up for the capstone class are taking on an extra 30 class sessions in addition to their regular course work requiring them to come in early 2 days each week (1 day each week for those in band) during the school’s zero hour which begins at 7:29 in the morning. In addition, students are required to deliver a presentation about their project before an audience of their classmates and members of the Palos School District 118 administration team.

“We are all so excited to see what direction our kiddos go in this year,” she said.