After three years of construction, Naperville’s $61.75 million Neuqua Valley High School opened its doors last week for a sneak preview for parents and students.
The impressed visitors began grasping for adjectives to describe it. The word “palatial” seemed popular.
Many of the adults who toured the Indian Prairie School District 204 flagship during a four-hour open house Thursday said the building was more opulent than structures found on college campuses.
The sprawling, 438,700-square-foot building on 50 acres at 2360 95th St. offers seven computer labs, a television studio, three forum rooms with seats on a grade, a pool with a diving well, five “gym stations,” a dance studio and a top-notch auditorium that seats 850.
It is the biggest high school built in Illinois since Lane Technical High School, with a capacity of 4,040, went up in Chicago nearly 80 years ago.
The school can accommodate about 3,000 students, although far fewer will be in the building when classes begin Aug. 25. More students will fill in during succeeding years, and there is even room to grow in what long has been the fastest-growing school district in the state.
Terry Friedman toured the three wings of the building along with his wife, a District 204 teacher, and said he was among those having a hard time fathoming going to school in such splendor.
“This is the Taj Mahal of high schools,” he said. “It really is beautiful.”
That’s only fitting, since Neuqua Valley is the most expensive high school in state history.
The splendor in the class first will be enjoyed by some 950 freshmen and sophomores who, when they arrive next week, will make the initial attempts by students to pick their way along hallways to find the 124 classrooms in the structure.
The incoming freshmen attended Granger and Gregory Middle Schools in Naperville as 8th graders last year, and the sophomore class will be made up of about half of the students who attended Neuqua Valley’s sister school, Waubonsie Valley High School, as freshmen in 1996-97.
The school will fill up by simply allowing its first two classes to track toward graduation while younger classmates move in behind them. This year’s sophomores will lead a student body of about 2,200 as seniors in 2000.
Construction of the school began in 1994 after District 204 voters approved a $97.25 million bond issue for a list of building projects that included Neuqua Valley. In March, they approved a $109.5 million bond package, primarily for new elementary space, but $1 million of that was earmarked for the gym stations at Neuqua Valley.
District officials and school administrators said they were pleased by the reactions of the residents who helped pay for the building.
The U-shaped building has wings for fine arts, academics and athletics. It was modeled after a school that district officials visited in suburban Minneapolis when they were considering plans for Neuqua Valley. Even the building’s dome-topped, rotunda entranceway was borrowed from the design.
The two-story academics wing, which features a guidance office for each grade level, is divided into sections by major areas of study, including business and math, science, social studies and English, and foreign language and health.
“This is going to be a marvelous place to learn, and that is the key,” said District 204 board member Owen Wavrinek. “Every opportunity will be here.”
Students who will use the building seemed to agree. Many surprised even themselves by saying they could hardly wait for summer vacation to end and classes to start.
Sophomore Staci Clark of Naperville was among the students acting as tour guides during the open house. Vice president of the student council, she said she is stunned by the school every time she walks through its halls.
“I’ve done so much bragging to all my friends, I think they’ve kind of gotten sick of me,” she said. “But I can hardly help it. We feel like royalty here.”
Even those dreaded morning announcements, usually carried through school buildings by static-filled public address systems, will be dressed up at Neuqua Valley. On some days, the messages will be made via television monitors in classrooms and hallways throughout the building.
The most serious hangup appears to be at the intersections where the three entranceways for the school meet at 95th Street.
In an apparent oversight, arrangements for traffic signals were not made in time, so stop signs and police officers will be in place when school opens.
Principal Kathryn Birkett has taken the reins at the school named for the eldest son of Potawatomi Chief Waubonsie. She said her goal as classes start is to create a sense of belonging for students.
“You have to build a sense of community that does not exist yet,” Birkett said. “All the traditions have to be started. That’s a challenge.”
