Editing Blue Island, Illinois (section)

== Education ==
[[File:Seymour School - Blue Island.jpg|thumb|Seymour School, designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Beers, Clay and Dutton and opened in 1892 at a cost of $35,000,<ref>{{cite news | title=Contracting News – Where New Work will be done| newspaper=The Sanitary News| volume=XVIII| issue = 381 |date=May 23, 1891 |pages=23}}</ref> was demolished to make room for a new building erected in 1925]]

As the largest settlement in the southern part of Cook County in the middle of the nineteenth century, Blue Island was an important trading and cultural center. The village offered educational opportunity to its residents as early as 1845 in the form of a private school for girls that was operated by local citizens, and public education was introduced in 1846 with the construction of a one-room schoolhouse that served the community exclusively for that purpose until the first Whittier School was built in 1854. The one-room schoolhouse was repurposed several times in subsequent years and still stands, much remodeled, as a comfortable house on Greenwood Avenue.<ref name=amtowns-district-218/>

Blue Island hosted a number of educational conferences during the 1850s, and because of this (and through the influence of Benjamin Sanders,<ref>{{cite book |title= History of Cook County Illinois|url= https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_V_A1AQAAMAAJ| last= Andreas |first= Alfred T.|year= 1884| publisher= A.T. Andreas| location= Chicago|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_V_A1AQAAMAAJ/page/n614 630] }}</ref> whose tenure with the Cook County Board was during that time) [[Chicago State University]] was founded in Blue Island in 1867 as the Cook County Normal (or Teacher's) School in the classrooms of the old Whittier School building on Vermont Street. This arrangement lasted until 1870, when the new campus for the college was completed in what is now the [[Englewood, Chicago|Englewood]] neighborhood of Chicago on {{convert|10|acre|m2}} of land that was donated by L. W. Beck for the purpose in 1868.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/426.html The Encyclopedia of Chicago – Englewood]</ref>

The public school district as a legal entity (now Cook County School District 130) was established in 1887, and the current high school district (Community High School District 218) was created in 1927, replacing earlier versions from 1897 and 1903. Blue Island Community High School (now Dwight D. Eisenhower High School) was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (now North Central Association – Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement) in 1899. As president of [[Columbia University]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the new facility on Sacramento Avenue for Blue Island Community High School in 1951, and the building was renamed in his honor in 1962.<ref name=amtowns-district-218>[http://www.americantowns.com/il/oaklawn/organization/community_high_school_district_218 AmericanTowns.com], accessed 02/05/2009</ref>

A portion of Blue Island is within the [[Posen-Robbins School District 143½]].

=== Elementary and middle schools ===
Most residents of Blue Island live within the boundaries of Cook County School District 130. The grade school district serves not only Blue Island, but also much of Crestwood, some of Robbins and a fraction of Alsip. Residents in the far Southeast of the city have students who attend Calumet Public School District 132. There are no schools from District 132 within the Blue Island boundary.

District 130 Boundaries:
* Blue Island: 123rd Street and 119th Streets (south sides only); Westside of Division
* Crestwood: Eastside of Central Avenue; 139th Street to the Turnpike (north sides only)
* Crestwood/Alsip: 127th Street
* Robbins/Blue Island: North side of 135th Street

Name changes:
*Greenwood School → Blue Island Community High School Freshman Building → 
Everett Kerr School → Veterans Memorial School (2015){{pb}}
What is now called Greenwood School is not the original (which is located on the corner of 123rd St. and Greenwood Avenue)(Currently inactive)
*Blue Island Community High School → Eisenhower Freshman Campus → Everett Kerr School

Other public schools include:
*Everett F. Kerr Middle School – 12915 S. Maple Ave. Serving grades 6–8
*Greenbriar School – 12015 S. Maple Ave. Serving students in alternative placement, grades 1–8
*Greenwood School – 12418 Highland Ave Presently used as a parent education and training site
*Horace Mann – 2975 W. Broadway Serving students in pre-K 
*Lincoln Elementary School – 2140 W. Broadway St. Serving students in grades K–3
*Paul Revere Intermediate School – 12331 S. Gregory St. Serving students in grades 4–6
*Paul Revere Primary School – 2300 W. 123rd Pl. Serving students in grades K–3
*Veteran's Memorial Middle School – 12320 S. Greenwood Serving grades 6–8
*Whittier Elementary School – 13043 S. Maple Serving students in grades 4–6

Private elementary and middle schools include:
* St. Benedict School – 2324 W. New St.
* St. Donatus – inactive

=== High schools ===
The public high school is:
*[[Dwight D. Eisenhower High School (Blue Island, Illinois)|Dwight D. Eisenhower High School]] – 12700 S. Sacramento Ave.

In 1903, a high school district, separate from District 130 was voted into law by the IL state legislature. For many years (at least until 1938), the superintendent of the high school district was the same for District 130; their school boundaries being virtually identical (the only difference being the inclusion of a cemetery in the high school district!). In August 1927, the Blue Island Community High School District 218 was established.<ref name="ReferenceA">Blue Island: The First 100 Years by John Henry Volp</ref> In 1916, there were 250 pupils at Seymour School who were following the high school curriculum. By 1927, the population had grown to 428 pupils despite the fact that the school was built to accommodate 250 students maximum.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

There are no active private high schools in the Blue Island community, although the Mother of Sorrows High School for Girls operated from 1954 through 1983. It was run by sisters from the order of the Servants of Mary ([[Mantellate Sisters|Mantellates]]). There was an attached grade school that served both boys and girls and had a boarding option for students who lived there full time. Most students were boarders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id683.html|title=Blue Island Mother of Sorrows Catholic High School|access-date=October 4, 2015|archive-date=September 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909210933/http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id683.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Higher education ===
*[[Moraine Valley Community College]] – 12940 S. Western Ave.

=== Special education ===
Public schools include:
*Able Program, Garfield School – 13801 S. Chatham St.
*Academy for Learning – 13813 S. Western Ave.

Private schools include:
*Blue Cap School – 2155 W. Broadway St. The keynote speaker for the dedication of Blue Cap in October 1967 was then-Senator [[Charles H. Percy]].