The combined Kirby School District 140 Concert and Symphonic Bands premiered an original composition on April 29 to honor Mr. Michael Szczasny’s retirement after 18 years as a band director, according to a May 4 announcement.
The event marked an important moment for the school community, celebrating Szczasny’s contributions through music and drawing together students, families, and alumni. The tribute piece, titled “Dwa Jako Jeden (Two in One),” was commissioned by the Band Parents Association and composed by Dr. Michael Pendowski of Auburn University. Pendowski and Szczasny previously performed together at DePaul University.
Retired band director Mark Corey participated as a guest jazz trombone soloist during the performance. Among those attending was Don Miller of Blue Island School District 130, who had been Szczasny’s junior high band director.
Kirby School District 140 represents Cook County schools including Christa McAuliffe School, Fernway Park Elementary School, Helen Keller Elementary School, John A. Bannes Elementary School, Millennium Elementary School, Prairie View Middle School, and Virgil I. Grissom Middle School according to the Illinois Report Card. The district enrolled 3,606 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade during the 2019-2020 school year and is located in Tinley Park and Cook County according to the Illinois Report Card.
Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows that Kirby has a teaching staff of 258 with an average salary of $68,179; about ninety percent are women while ten percent are men; no teachers recorded more than ten absences in a school year according to the Illinois Report Card. Demographically, the district is about eighty percent White with smaller percentages identifying as Black (3 percent), Hispanic (8 percent), or Asian (4 percent) according to ISBE.
Kirby spent $20,628 per student in fiscal year 2020 for a total expenditure of over $74 million according to ISBE data. During that same period there were eighteen chronically truant students—about half a percent—well below the statewide average chronic truancy rate of nearly ten percent as reported by ISBE.
