Barbara Oken retires as principal of Farnsworth School, where she spent her entire teaching, administrative career

by BRIAN NADIG

For the past 37 years Barbara Oken commuted every workday to Farnsworth School, 5414 N. Linder Ave., but that ended on June 30 when she retired as the school’s principal.

“That’s going to be the hardest thing for me. It’s going to be hard not to go there every day,” said Oken, who served her entire teaching and administrative career at Farnsworth. “It’s like family. That’s why people start teaching there and stay.”

Oken, who grew up in the Dunning area and attended Steinmetz High School, performed her student-teaching duties at Farnsworth in 1985 and returned in 1986 as a full-time teacher.

She then became its assistant principal in 1997, where she served under longtime Farnsworth principal Dr. Catherine Wells.

Wells was principal from 1973 to 2011. Oken was appointed principal in 2012.

“Dr. Wells was very special. … I kind of grew up under her tutelage,” Oken said. “She had a lot of energy.”

When Oken first arrived at Farnsworth, the school — like others on the Northwest Side — was struggling to attract neighborhood students. At the time Farnsworth became well known for its programs for those with disabilities, including blindness.

Enrollment has grown in the past 30 years from “the upper 200s to close to 500,” Oken said.

“We do have a lot of diversity … with our special needs students along with a strong neighborhood population,” Oken said.

Oken’s replacement is Julie Walsh, another homegrown Farnsworth product. Like Oken, Walsh student taught at the school and was then hired full-time. Walsh has been there 23 years, including 11 years as the assistant principal.

As for her retirement plans, Oken said that she plans to travel, do some gardening and “volunteer at Farnsworth because once a Mustang always a Mustang.”

Walsh officially started as principal on July 1, becoming the school’s third full-time principal since 1973.