Maine South and Maine East are both in Park Ridge and couldn't be more opposite in terms of success. What other schools share a town hall but are polar opposites?
Haves and have nots in same town
- Thread starter Sparty Jones
- Start date
Don't get me started..Back in the day in Park Ridge ME and MS were split at Oakton street..If you were north of Oakton you went to ME, south you went to MS. When Maine North closed, about 80% of their students funneled into Maine East, so it became overcrowded immediately. District 207's answer was to allow the Park Ridge folks in ME territory to attend MS if they chose and the rest was history.
As Park Ridge became Nouveau riche in the late 80's/90's and replacing nice middle class housing with McMansions became the norm, all the PR kids gravitated to Maine South, and they got all the increased tax revenue from the McMansion's property values and South flourished while East atrophied. Maine East is in Park Ridge, but today it's NOT a Park Ridge school..no one who attends actually lives in Park Ridge. (The only positive: my parents bought their house in 1970 for $55,700 and sold it in 1994 when they retired for $329,000)
Maine East is now a perennial doormat in football, but my freshman year our varsity was 9-0 (and made it's only playoff appearance in school history) and Maine South was 4-5..so it wasn't always that way. Also, I think Maine South's "downturn" since 2011 is simply a matter of demographics..when all those McMansions were built in the late 80's/90's all these rich families moved in so PR was flush with kids of successful families, but I think now that big influx has run it's course and all those kids are now in their 20's while their parents are still stuck paying off McMansions that have never gotten back close to what they were worth pre-2008. Given that, I think it's going to take a turning over/influx and some time before/if they return to what they were between Phil Hopkins last year and 2011.
Joliet Central and JCA.....The Steelmen doubled the wins of the Hillmen!
