TP_071416

tinleyjunction.com news
the tinley junction | July 14, 2016 | 3
Residents ask for mulligan with disc golf course
Concerns expressed
over location, traffic
Lee Edwards
Freelance Reporter
An 18-hole disc golf
course is coming to Tinley
Park, but the community atlarge
has mixed emotions
about its arrival.
The Tinley Park–Park
District Board of Commissioners
listened to grievances
July 6 from residents
concerning the potential
disc golf course at its regularly
scheduled meeting.
Similar in scoring to conventional
golf, disc golf is
a game where participants
attempt to throw a discus
from one end of an established
course to a designated
goal within a set number
of attempts.
The board recently voted
and approved plans to move
forward with the creation
of the course at Siemsen
Meadows, 7200 167th St.,
after holding a public hearing
on the matter on June 15
at the Tony Bettenhausen
Recreation Center. Tinley
Park-Park District Director
of Parks and Recreation
John Curran said the district
has already begun preparing
for the course by purchasing
$14,000 in equipment
with $6,000 earmarked for
installation costs.
The course has been in
the works by the district
for more than a decade according
to Curran; however,
several of the meeting’s
attendees felt their voices
had not been heard. Multiple
homeowners argued
the course would destroy
sections of the community’s
wetlands, alter dog
walking paths, increase
neighborhood car traffic
and infringe on homeowner
“I have nothing against disc golf
but Tinley is a big area, there has
to be another place in the Village
that would be more suitable.”
Debbie Norris — Tinley Park resident, voicing her
displeasure for the proposed disc golf course to be
located at Siemsen Meadows
property.
Tinley Park resident Ron
Rhodes voiced his concerns
about potential marijuana
usage on the course, the
high volume of parking the
course could attract and the
disappearance of wildlife
native to the wetlands.
“When you have 64 acres
and you want to put [the
course] in my backyard,
why don’t you put it on
the other 32 acres on the
other side?” Rhodes said.
“You’ve got plenty of room
just don’t put it in my backyard.
I think everyone else
here that’s against it will
think the same thing.”
Debbie Norris, a Tinley
Park resident, highlighted
preserving the natural beauty
of the wetlands should be
a priority and suggested another
location for the course
should be investigated.
“The wetland is peaceful,
and we want to keep it
that way,” Norris said. “I
have nothing against disc
golf, but Tinley is a big
area.There has to be another
place in the Village that
would be more suitable.”
Curran responded to residents’
concerns by reassuring
them the district was doing
everything in its power
to cater to their objections.
“I think people will see
that we will work with the
neighbors as much as possible
and try to make it as easy
on them as possible, but it’s
a park, and it’s open for the
whole community, and we
want to make that available
to them,” Curran said. “We
will take care of concerns
and put them into effect as
we design the course.”
Not all Tinley Park residents
opposed the creation
of the disc golf course. Brian
Borcherding, a 12-year
Tinley Park resident and
avid disc golf player, offered
his support for the creation
of the course. He said
his son, Bill, introduced him
and his wife, Cindy, to the
sport over a decade ago, and
he has enjoyed it ever since.
He was taken aback by
the knowledge individuals
throughout the community
crafted a petition against the
disc golf course and said if
need be he was willing and
able to produce a petition in
favor of the course.
“As far as people who
support [the disc golf
course] I don’t think we
were prepared for this,”
Borcherding said. “I believe
there are a lot of people who
want a disc golf park.”
Borcherding said there is
a large contingent of disc
golf players that would
greatly appreciate the creation
of a course within
their community. He called
the game “addictive” for beginners.
Consolidated High School D230 prepares for new era of education
Lee Edwards
Freelance Reporter
Consolidated High School
District 230 is not taking the
summer off, and for good
reason.
The district intends to improve
the overall quality of
education district-wide by
implementing a new math
curriculum and incorporating
new technology in the
classrooms this fall.
The curriculum modification
is part of the district’s
ongoing initiative, “Successful
Students, Successful
Schools,” which provides all
students within the district
the opportunity to learn essential
knowledge and skills,
regardless of their teachers
or school.
D230 Director of Communications
Carla Erdey
said the initiative began nine
years ago, based on a dialogue
between community
stakeholders, higher education
forecasters, local business
owners, teachers and
parents, as a means to determine
what are the essential
skills youths needed for their
future careers and how best
to implement developmental
courses into the curriculum.
Beginning in the fall, in
accordance with the district’s
vision for mathematics,
incoming freshmen will
be placed in integrated math
in lieu of algebra. Integrated
math is a comprehensive
course that incorporates
“We’ve been taking the slow and
steady process so we can hit the
ground running in the fall.”
Carla Erdey — Director of Communications, for
Consolidated High School District 230, on the district’s
summer prep
the traditional concepts of
geometry, algebra and advanced
algebra. The new
curriculum was developed in
conjunction with the National
Governors Association to
foster unorthodox computation
and mathematical analysis
skills.
D230 Curriculum Director
Dr. Stacey Gonzales
said integrated math will be
more applicable to the “real
world” and will possess a
higher level of relevancy and
authenticity. She said teachers
have been preparing for
the transition for some time,
and she anticipates they will
be even more engaged in the
learning process.
“Teachers will be more
hands on than your traditional
math-solving problems,”
Gonzales said. “We
spent a lot of time working
on this new way to teach
math, where kids start with
a problem and they come up
with various ways to solve
the problem.”
In addition to improving
the deductive skills
of the district’s math students,
freshmen and sophomores
are to receive Google
Chromebooks within the
first days of instruction to
take home for hands-on,
technology-based education,
according to Gonzales. The
Chromebooks will be paid
for in full by the students’
annual technology fee of $75
by their senior years. District
seniors and juniors will
not receive Chromebooks;
however, a select number of
Chromebooks will be available
in a few upperclassmen
classrooms. D230’s Board
of Education previously authorized
the purchasing and
distribution of the Chromebooks.
“Our students will be
ready for using things that
they’re going to see outside
of school once they leave
us in these four short years
that we have them,” Gonzales
said. “Our teachers have
been working really hard to
find ways to use our digital
resources to help kids be engaged
in learning.”
Please see d230, 9