Board of Education Honors Outgoing Berkley Mayor

OAK PARK – The Berkley Board of Education honored outgoing Berkley Mayor Marilyn Stephan, a former teacher, during its meeting Monday night at the Avery Center.

Stephan, a Berkley resident since 1957, attended the meeting with her husband George, a graduate and city resident since 1940, and received accolades from Superintendent Michael Simeck.

"We wanted to say publicly how much we've enjoyed working with you," Simeck said, citing some of the mayor's accomplishments during her years of public service to Berkley, including:

• teaching at , and .
• serving as Berkley Education Association union president for 10 years before her retirement in 1995. "She was really a good teacher," Simeck said. "I hear that all the time. And a good teacher becomes a good union president."
• being elected to Berkley City Council in 1999 and then as mayor beginning in 2005.
• overseeing an $11 million street improvement project as mayor.
• leading the city when it was ranked in a 2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek report as among the United States' best and most affordable suburbs.
• volunteering with the Friends of the Library booster group for the .

Stephan said she was most proud of helping to establish a standing Environmental Advisory Committee during her time as mayor and that the most difficult part of the job was taking phone calls at 3 a.m.

She will hand over the reins to Phil O'Dwyer on Nov. 21 during the next meeting.

"It's been such a learning experience," she said.

Quick hits

Come back to Berkley Patch for reports on more topics from Monday night's Board of Education meeting, including:

• The school board approved initiation of the process to launch a Chinese foreign exchange program. Questions that were raised during a Nov. 7 study session (see attached PDF) have been addressed, so the board chose to act on the proposal Monday night.
• Director of Schools and Human Resources Dennis McDavid gave a presentation on the impact of state changes to tenure and evaluation law. He said teachers throughout the district are being informed of the changes.

Would you like to hear about another topic that was on ? Leave a comment to let us know!