Be True To Your (New) School

by Mark Loehrke

But if the back-to-school routine feels so very, well, routine for most Naperville students, there's at least one group of District 204 teens for whom the late-summer ritual 2009 will constitute an entirely new experience. The novelty of the process for these members of the classes of 2012 and 2013, however, will have far less to do with new teachers or new outfits and more with the fact that nobody has ever been back to their school.

After years of growing population, contentious debate, and legal wrangling, Metea Valley High School, the Naperville area's fifth public high school—and second brand-new campus since 1997—is scheduled to open its doors on August 20th to welcome its first herd of newly-minted freshmen and sophomore Mustangs. New Metea principal Jim Schmid has been involved with the project since its spirited beginnings, and despite the well-publicized and often bitter taffy pulls among various factions regarding projected enrollment and site selection, he feels the community is ready to put aside any past differences and focus on the needs and well-being of the incoming students.

Creation, in fact, is the heady concept that can't help but dominate any discussion of Metea. After all, the notion of building something from the ground up applies to far more than just the frantic effort to get the physical structure at Eola and Molitor Roads ready to welcome students on that first day of school. It's also about the demands of trying to mold a student body and to instill a spirit of pride and togetherness in something that is brand new. Schmid is well aware of these unique challenges, but feels he has assembled a group of teachers and administrators that will be more than up to the task.

"I felt from the beginning that it was critical to hire the very best staff we could find, and I feel exceptionally good about the people we have," he explains. "It's our job now to provide strong leadership and to work very hard as educators to forge a real relationship with each and every student."

Schmid wants to foster an atmosphere built on mutual respect among teachers, parents and teens, thus encouraging students to rally around their new school and seek out the pioneering opportunities that come with being first through the door. In Schmid's view, this means the students should see Metea as part of who they are, not just a place they have to go.

"We want to encourage our students to see high school as a lifestyle and to understand that this is an experience and a community that really belongs to them," he says. "Hopefully the enthusiasm and the desire to get involved just spread from there."

"I'm not going to lie, getting everything done within this compressed timeframe is going to take a yeoman's effort," he admits. "But we've got a lot of great people giving it their all, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

MVHS Facts
School district: Indian Prairie #204
Address: 1080 N. Eola Road, Aurora 60502
Phone: 630.375.2051
Fax: 630.375.2052
Questions to: Jim Schmid, jim_schmid@ipsd.org