Melanie McQueen - Parent

Melanie is a mom of 4. Her eldest daughter (pictured) is in grad school at Harvard, a son who is making a difference in the south Chicago communities, a Sophomore at OP and a 8th grader at Julian Middle School. She came to the Oak Park community 20 years ago as a working single mom. Unaware of the prestigious reputation of Oak Park she was often praised living in the highly desired community. In 2010 her daughter experienced extreme bullying, racism, harassment, and poor classroom environments. She was also harassed by D200 residency officers. This forced her to be involved, learn the laws of education, learn her rights as a parent, the politics of the community, and what it meant to be Black and heavily involved. She served for 3 years as VP of Community with Longfellow PTO, one year with Collaboration for Early Childhood, 2 years as a member of Julian DivCo at Julian Middle School while at Julian she developed JayHawk Talks which focused on Black issues amongst the youth, and Diversity Night. She was the sponsor for the 8th Dance for 2018 and 2019. She is in her 10th year as Set Designer and Parent Coordinator for the Kuumba Kids and Longfellow. In 2010 She caught the attention of Wyanetta Johnson and was mentored into the position of A.P.P.L.E. President and began the role in 2013. She has developed a new board, and new initiatives to meet the needs of African-American students today. Under her leadership, A.P.P.L.E. is now a 501c3 organization, has awarded 11 scholarships in the past 5 years. She upheld A.P.P.L.E.'s seat at the table for the 2nd and last Strategic Planning Committee, serving on the Community Outreach task force, and member of D200 School Board Culture Climate and Behavior Committee since its inception in 2015, and was integral in the historic passing of the Racial Equity Policy and not allowing the policy to be whitewashed and to specifically protect African-American students.