214@100: Gifted teacher, students adds up to big win

In 1978, the science fair competitors from Arlington High School brought home a big win at the state competition, sparking a schoolwide assembly that prompted biology teacher Laine Gurley-Galatte to note she felt like an athlete.

"No academic team had ever been honored in such a way," she remembers. "It was a first for our school." It was well-deserved: the juniors and seniors who were part of the effort had done college-quality research, Gurley-Galatte says, with one using Northwestern University's laboratories to support their project.

Those students have carried what they learned with them; they now include a high school biology teacher; a doctor; a college professor of animal behavior; a psychiatrist; an internist and a pediatric anesthesiologist.

Gurley-Galatte is still in touch with many of them, and followed one to Cornell University for her postgraduate work. Since her days at Arlington High School, she taught at Forest View and Rolling Meadows high schools - earning the state Biology Teacher of the Year award in 1987 and the Golden Apple Fellow Award in 1998. "I always felt like District 214 was behind me as a teacher," she said. "It made a difference."

• 214@100 is a celebration of District 214's centennial; 100 people, places, things and events that have shaped the school district's unique history. To contribute an idea, send an email to district214@dailyherald.com.