Rich East High School

Rich East High School or REHS was a public four-year high school located in Park Forest, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago in the United States. Rich East's campus serves the cities of Park Forest, Matteson, Olympia Fields, Chicago Heights and Richton Park serving sections of school districts 162 and 163. Oscar W. Huth Middle School, Illinois Elementary School, Barack Obama School of Leadership and STEM and Michelle Obama School of Technology and the Arts served as feeder schools. It is a part of Rich Township District 227, which also includes Rich South High School and Rich Central High School. As of October 16, 2019, District 227 has decided to close the school. Until its closure it was the oldest of the three district high schools. History Rich East High school was the first of its district to open in 1952, but was originally called Rich Township High school. This was the school's name until the construction of Rich Central High School in 1961 and Rich South High School in 1972, which now make up the three schools of District 227. Rich East was originally held in the Faith United Protestant Church until Park Forest gave them the open land to build the school. The land was only open and given to them for free by the villagers of Park Forest because it was mostly composed of clay, which is not suitable to build upon. Many old students remember that for many years, cement had to be pumped underneath the school's main gym so that it would not sink.The Media Center, in the front of the building was also built on unstable ground and after several days of rain, water would rise up into the carpet, making it difficult to breathe. The head librarian would scramble to save books.