No time to sleep as Metea Valley school nears completion

Jim Schmid has been having trouble sleeping.

Instead of being able to count sheep, the Metea Valley principal finds himself adding up all the things that still need to be done in the two months before his new Aurora high school opens to freshmen and sophomores in Indian Prairie Unit District 204.

With the walls and ceilings up and staff in place for the school along Eola Road, Schmid and his team have begun the more tedious tasks of class scheduling, signing for equipment deliveries and making sure every room has enough desks.

"I certainly used to sleep a lot better than I do now. There are just so many things to coordinate and obviously it's my job to make those happen along with other people in the district," Schmid said. "You just don't have control over everything because there are so many entities that have to come together and that certainly causes you some distress. At least it's caused me some distress."

Thankfully he's getting support from someone who knows a thing or two about opening a new school.

Incoming Superintendent Kathy Birkett was principal of the new Steck Elementary School when it opened in 1992. And in 1997, she was the principal when District 204 opened its $63 million Neuqua Valley High School in south Naperville.

"Now he's at a point where you really feel like you're under the gun because this building will open and it will open on time," Birkett said. "This is when I told Jim to forget about sleeping through the night. Those days are over. That isn't going to happen again until those kids are in that building and you feel really comfortable."

Birkett recalls waking up and screaming "pencil sharpener!" in the middle of the night weeks before Steck opened, because she was afraid she had forgotten to unpack them.

On the eve before that first day of school at Neuqua in 1997, she remembers walking room to room and dragging desks to and fro and floor to floor to make sure the special needs students had the proper desks in the right places and everyone had a seat.

"It really starts coming down to very basic things and the most basic of that is the students, so you really start focusing on making sure kids are comfortable and have a schedule," she said. "It's a big, big job."

Schmid said while working with both the staff and school community, which includes parents and area business groups, his focus has remained on incoming students. He's already met many and is excited to meet the rest and see what kind of personalities will fill the new school and define it's culture.

"The students have to come first. Even when we think about what we're going to do for orientation, we want to get the students in the building before we get anyone else in there so that'll happen Aug. 11."

Birkett said building the culture Schmid referenced has been and will continue to be the most fun, yet challenging part.

"You really have the opportunity to create something that doesn't exist so you go into it trying to create new things," she said. "We have teachers and administrators and kids coming from both outside and other buildings so you have to make that all mesh. Every place has its nuances and we would want it to; otherwise there is no culture there."

As for the staff, Schmid said he's anxious to see his new team in action.

"I think it is critically important to ensure we have the best people that we possibly can in front of our kids. And again, I felt really good about that," he said. "You look back and it seems somewhat demanding but that was one of the easier things."

Overall, Schmid said the daunting task of building a high school has been every bit as challenging as he expected - but he wouldn't change a thing.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy but in some ways it's easier than running a building because you don't have all of the student and parent issues," he said. "In other ways, it's more difficult because there's no training book for this and I've never done it before. I've called on people who have done it and they've allotted me a great deal of assistance."

Birkett obviously was one of them.

"I told him when I hired him for the job 'This will be an experience you will never forget and one that you will always have such a warm, wonderful feeling about,'" she said.