Riverside Brookfield High School is moving smartly to vastly expand and remake its culinary lab and the curriculum that goes with it. The school board last week approved spending $2.17 million to start demolition this summer of an interior space that will be converted, hopefully by year-end, into what amounts to a commercial kitchen.
The upgrade will allow the school to meet what is a rapidly growing demand from students for hospitality training and to have those students work and study in a space that replicates real-life work conditions in a restaurant kitchen.
Right now, the small food lab is closer to a home kitchen than a vocational training center for a career path that is teeming with job possibilities. Providing students with real-life options to work is a critical adjustment RB and many other schools are making. The assumption that most students should be headed to four-year colleges continues to shift.
Supt. Kevin Skinkis said there may be up to 500 students who have expressed interest in culinary training. That is a giant number.
RB’s expansion of its culinary program should also allow it to align for dual credit courses through Triton College. Triton has an exceptional culinary and hospitality training program.
Smart move at RB.
A renewed Constance Morris
The Constance Morris House, a domestic violence shelter serving the Landmark communities, reopened last week after an extensive upgrade. Under the auspices of Pillars Community Health, this shelter dates back to 1979 when it opened in Brookfield under a different name.
The upgrades are substantial. Housing for domestic violence survivors, and sometimes their families, has been converted from a dormitory style into private rooms with private baths. Community kitchen and laundry space have been updated and improved indoor and outdoor play spaces for kids living at Constance Morris have also been completed.
For all these improvements, we are most struck by the agency’s philosophical decision to begin publicly identifying the location of the shelter. Until now, the site of the home in LaGrange was narrowly kept, with the idea that it protected residents from their abusers.
Agency leaders say the priority is to let those involved in abusive relationships know exactly where their safe space exists and how to access it.
To us, this is a positive and transparent declaration that those brave enough to exit an abusive relationship and those determined enough to offer services to these good people cannot be intimidated and do not need to be hidden away from the very people who have perpetrated the abuse.