Community Consolidated School District 15


Community Consolidated School District 15, often initialized CCSD15, is a school district in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois with its headquarters in the Joseph M. Kiszka Educational Service Center in Palatine. It is the second-largest elementary-only school district and 19th-largest in Illinois by student enrollment. It serves all or portions of Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Arlington Heights, Inverness, Schaumburg, and South Barrington.

Schools

The district has one preschool early childhood center, 15 elementary schools, four junior high schools, and one alternative public day school.
Junior high schools
Elementary schools
Alternative school

History

Plum Grove Junior High School was built in 1961 for the cost of $1.1 million; the school was opened in September 1962. It started as a 28,000 square foot, one-story, K-8 school with a partial basement. The school was designed for 380 students at the time. Gene Shull was chosen to be the first principal of the school, a position he held until 1969. It was heated by a main boiler and was ventilated by opening windows and doors. Fresh air was reduced for students and staff when fire codes demanded that doors be kept closed. In 1966, a $1.9 million referendum allowed the building to double in size and add newer classrooms that were equipped with small unit ventilators. The school reopened in the fall of 1968. In 1970, it was made exclusively a junior high school.
In 1988, the junior high's heating and ventilation systems were upgraded. In 1993, a 6.5 million dollar renovation project at Plum Grove added a second floor, cafeteria, resource center, elevator, office, and student service area. This renovation doubled the school's size, making it 98,000 square feet.
In June 1993, asbestos contractors started to remove the asbestos insulation and tiling. About 90 students had classes in these rooms; 10 students and teachers complained of odors in them. The district consulted TurnKey Environmental Consultants of Mount Prospect, Illinois, to sample the air for contaminants. In 1993, TurnKey submitted a report stating that the levels of alkanes were 133 times lower than the permissible exposure limit set by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The floors were sealed again but odor complaints still resumed. Students and teachers were moved out of these rooms and the floors were shot blasted and sealed with latex-epoxy paint.
In 1994, The Chicago Tribune found that five employees had died from various forms of cancer, primarily breast cancer, between 1982 and 1994, and four current staff members had been diagnosed with cancer, three of which had been working in the building for ten years. In addition to that, teachers, staff, and students complained of bronchitis, colds, flus, asthma, and allergies. Incidents of asthma were so severe for students that some decided to transfer to different schools. The teachers wrote to the school board asking for an investigation. The administration immediately agreed to investigate the concerns. At this time, media coverage was heavy, placing pressure on the school district to take immediate action.
A team, including Northwest Community Hospital and TurnKey Environmental Consultants were chosen to investigate the concerns. While the investigation by Northwest Community Hospital and Turnkey Environmental was going on, the Classroom Teachers Council, said it would push to conduct its own tests if the district's team found no problems. This statement was largely due to the revelation that yet another Plum Grove teacher had been diagnosed with cancer.
In late June, the district announced that the results of the much anticipated investigation would be delayed three weeks. The teachers sent a formal request to the district to get the raw data from the environmental samples to conduct their own investigation. Although ties were found between ingesting certain types of common mold aspergillus and cancer, Dr. Peter Orris, a medical director the district hired for the investigation, denied that mold at the school had any link to cancer in a letter sent to teachers. However, teachers and parents were still concerned that Orris was basing his conclusions in part on a British Medical Journal published in 1976. In late August 1994, it was found by the investigation that there were no cancer-causing agents in Plum Grove, but the air quality of the building was very poor.
On August 6, 1994, an unknown vandal pried open the school's doors and scattered chemicals and specimens in the science lab.

Academic commendations

In 1997, Plum Grove was recognized by the United States Department of Education as a National Blue Ribbon School. The school was also recognized by the Illinois Honor Roll with its Academic Excellence Award from 2007-2012.

Pennies for Patients

Each year, Plum Grove participates in a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society called "Pennies for Patients". During the fundraiser, organized by Maura Reid, students are encouraged to bring in donations in the form of pennies and other coins; the class with the donation that weighs the most is awarded a prize. Several activities are also held during the fundraiser to support the LLS. The school has participated in the fundraiser since 2002 and has been featured on CBS and in the Daily Herald for these actions. As of 2015, Plum Grove has raised over $143,000 for the charity.

In pop culture

Plum Grove is featured in the book Code of Silence: Living a Lie Comes With a Price by Plum Grove alumnus Tim Shoemaker as the school at which the main characters attend. As a result of the popularity of the book and Shoemaker's success, he visited Plum Grove during the 2014-2015 school year to talk to the students about writing as a career.

Notable alumni