Julian Middle School

CAST Kicks off Spring Season!

The CAST performing arts program at Julian Middle School will kick off its spring season on Feb. 20-21with 7:30 p.m. presentations of “Freedom Summer, Mississippi” in celebration of Black History Month. CAST will present, in song and text, the 1964 campaign in which hundreds of student volunteers from around the country joined organizers and local African-Americans in a historic campaign to attempt to register African-American voters in Mississippi, where blacks historically had been excluded from voting. Tickets are available in advance through the CAST website at www.op97.org/CAST or may be purchased at the door.  Please contact Kathy Simon at 708 524 7848 or ksimon@op97.org for more information.

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Julian’s CAST Festival of Plays
Julian Middle School’s CAST theater program will feature a festival of three separate plays on Dec. 11, 12, 13 & 14, all of which continue with this year’s theme, “We are more alike than we are unalike.”
“Translations” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 11 and 12.  A play about language, “Translations” concerns the British government’s making of a map of Ireland in the late 1800s and attempting to re-name the landscape of an entire culture.
“Home on the Morning Train” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 13.  It portrays the plight of Jewish children, in hiding from the Nazis, who find inspiration from reading a first-person account of young black slaves trying to make their way to Canada in search of freedom.
The festival will conclude with a presentation of “Daisy Pulls it Off!” at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 14.  Daisy Meredith, an impoverished girl, faces snobbish prejudice and pranks from wealthier students while she and her best friend search for a missing treasure that could save the exclusive Grangewood School for Young Ladies.
All of the performances will be at Julian, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave.  Tickets are available in advance through the CAST website, www.op97.org/CAST, or may be purchased at the door.  For more information, please contact Kathy Simon at 708-524-7848 or at ksimon@op97.org.

Irving School Alumni in Julian’s Fall Musical
Julian Middle School’s CAST program will perform its fall musical, Once on This Island, at 7:30 p.m. on November 14th and 15th and at 2 p.m. on November 16th.  Join us on Saturday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m. for the pre-show Taco dinner and receive priority seating!  Tickets to both can be found here:
Once on This Island is a calypso-flavored re-telling of The Little Mermaid and will feature lively song-and-dance numbers, a performance by the Julian Choir, and live drumming by Jean-Christophe Leroy, a versatile percussionist/drummer who specializes in Cuban, West African, Brazilian and other Afro-Caribbean styles of music.
IMG_0621-1Performances will be in the Julian Auditorium at 416 S. Ridgeland Ave., Oak Park.  Tickets are available in advance through the CAST website, www.op97.org/CAST, or may be purchased at the door. For more information, please contact Kathy Simon at 708-524-7848 or at ksimon@op97.org.
Once on This Island, which was written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (the team also responsible for Seussical and Ragtime), delivers melody, love and joy in tropical abundance.

PTO Meeting This Thursday, April 3, 6:30pm

We hope you can join us for the April PTO meeting, which is this week on Thursday, April 3 at 6:30pm in the Library/Media Center on the second floor. As always, free child care is provided.

We hope to see you there. If you are unable to attend and would like to discuss anything on the agenda, please contact Laura Crawford at lauracrawford47@gmail.com, Jodie Ackerman at jodiepto@yahoo.com, or any of the other PTO board members (click here for contact info).

Irving School PTO
Agenda for Monthly Meeting
April 3, 2014
6:30PM
Irving Media Center Library

  1. Welcome
  2. Presentation and Question/Answer by Faith Cole, Assistant Principal at Julian Middle School, on the transition to middle school and life at Julian (20 minutes)
  3. Principal’s Report (20 minutes)
  4. Nominations for Open PTO Board Member Positions (5 minutes)
    1. Notes: Nominees need not be present to be nominated; nominations also accepted at May 1 meeting; voting will be held at May 1 meeting.
  5. Treasurer’s Report (5 minutes)
    1. Vote on funds for new school banners on street posts.
  6. Committee Reports: (20 minutes)
    1. Event recap: Technology night
    2. Spring book fair: April 21-25
    3. Academic fair: April 23
    4. Tasty Dog fundraiser: April 30
    5. Irving sleepover: May 2
    6. Ethnic festival and parade: May 3
    7. Other committee reports
  7. Eagle Extras Update (10 minutes)
    1. Vote on policy change to remove limit on scholarship requests.
  8. Approve minutes from 3/6/14
  9. All other business

Next meeting: May 1, includes presentation on Internet safety by Ms. Noonan and Student Council representatives.