How Naperville freshman center will become a ‘hub’ for District 204 programs
With Indian Prairie Unit District 204 preparing to move freshmen to Neuqua Valley High School’s main campus, officials have outlined their plans for the current ninth-grade center in Naperville.
The district intends to bring all four high school grade levels under one roof beginning with the 2027-28 year. The shift also allows the district to redesign the stand-alone Neuqua freshman center — named for former Superintendent Kathy Birkett — as part of an ambitious list of projects made possible by voter-approved funding.
“With the freshmen moving back to main, we have the opportunity to turn the Birkett center into a hub for the district. That’s going to benefit students, faculty and families across the entire district,” Assistant Superintendent Nicole Howard said.
Last November, voters said “yes” to the district’s request to issue up to $420 million in bonds for extensive improvements throughout the Aurora-based school system.
Architects have proposed a two-story Neuqua addition in the back that will primarily include classrooms and science labs. An addition in the front will house some key student and staff resources.
Meanwhile, the district plans to transform the Birkett Freshman Center into a multipurpose building. Most prominently, it will serve as the new home for STEPS, a transition program for young people with disabilities, and the Gail McKinzie credit recovery program.
“During phase two, we have the opportunity to use these spaces in more diverse ways, like including a welcome center for newcomers to our country and our district, increasing our Pathways offerings, K-8 STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) spaces and then multipurpose spaces,” Howard said in June.
The freshman center originally served as a middle school. The district will dedicate a section of the first floor to the STEPS program, including a life skills apartment.
“It is a full apartment, so students will be able to develop all of those skills and work toward living independently,” Howard said.
There also will be micro-business areas.
“That's kind of one of their prime programs that is really community-based,” said Amy Tiberi of Wight & Company, the architectural firm hired by the district. So plans call for putting that in the center of the building to “really showcase all the activity and collaboration that's happening with the students in order to create those businesses,” she told the school board in a presentation last month.
A conceptual rendering of the main entrance shows a “professional look and feel,” Howard said.
“That's really important for the young adults in this program as they transition from school,” she said. “We want it to look less like school and more like the businesses they're going to be working in.”
The district also plans to expand its career technical education and pathways work. According to the project website, the center’s existing foods lab, technology and engineering spaces will be renovated to support the Pathways program.
“Any way that we can have students doing what they love, specifically, I'm all for engaging them,” school board member Catey Genc told administrators. “And I understand this is all still in the works, how all of that is going to work, but I'm personally very excited about everything you guys are doing over at Birkett.”