Some area schools don't love Valentine's deliveries

Florists and delivery personnel won't be feeling the Valentine's Day love Friday at some suburban schools.

While many high schools allow deliveries of flowers, chocolates and gifts to students on and around Valentine's Day, Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora is one of those putting students, parents and others on notice.

A communitywide e-mail and message on the school's Web site this week makes it clear no deliveries will be accepted Friday.

"While we here at Waubonsie appreciate the sentiment that is communicated by these gifts, we also understand the impact that they may have on the academic environment," the statement read. "Additionally, the sheer volume of gifts sent for our students is not a function to which we can dedicate the resources to manage."

Principal Kristine Marchiando says the school's reception staff in recent years has hustled to deliver gifts that have arrived for some of Waubonsie's roughly 2,700 students, but couldn't always keep up.

"Of course some students have the resources to pay for such deliveries, but a great majority of the items were sent by parents," Marchiando said. "And the sentiment is very nice but it's not that nice for the student who never got their gift because staff didn't have time to deliver it in between actual school duties."

To help in their efforts, Marchiando said area florists have been notified of the delivery ban and those who either ignore or didn't get the message will be greeted by a sign on the school's front doors.

Kinneri Shah, owner of Floral Attitude, 2194 Ogden Ave. in Aurora, said she got a call from the school and would respect the request she not deliver orders Friday. A majority of her deliveries, she said, already have been ordered to private residences.

"You'd think this wouldn't be an issue with the day falling on Sunday and there not being school on Monday," she said. "But Valentine's Day is an important day in the life of a high-schooler. They want everyone to see how much they're loved by their family or significant others so the deliveries would come Friday."

The four schools in Glenbard High School District 87, as well as Wheeling and Buffalo Grove high schools, each prohibit such deliveries, too.

"It is not board policy, but a practice we follow," District 87 spokeswoman Peg Manion said. "As you might imagine, with nearly 9,000 students throughout the school district, it would be very disruptive to have numerous deliveries to classrooms."

Naperville Central, Hersey and Prospect high schools each accept deliveries but try to minimize distractions by having students pick them up from an administrative office at the end of the day.

"On every day, not just Valentine's Day, we try to minimize the number of disruptions to the school day," Naperville Central Assistant Principal Jackie Pfeiffer said. "Because it's on a Sunday (this year) we're not too concerned about an overabundance of interruptions."

Neither of Waubonsie's sister schools in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 - Neuqua Valley in Naperville or Metea Valley in Aurora - have enacted the delivery ban. Metea officials said they have no history on which to base such a ban because this is the first Valentine's Day since the school opened last fall. Neuqua officials said deliveries have never been a problem this time of year.

"If we ever thought this was an issue we needed to address, we would certainly ask our students and parents to rethink their gifting options," Assistant Principal Lance Fuhrer said. "I think we actually get more deliveries and gift exchanging right before the holiday break."

• Daily Herald Staff Writer Melissa Jenco contributed to this report.