Metea Valley's first principal excited for charge ahead

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 has promised parents the walls of Metea Valley High School will be up by August.

Now it's up to one man, Principal Jim Schmid, to build his leadership team and faculty before next fall's freshmen and sophomores step inside that building on Eola Road in Aurora.

"We're getting there," Schmid said. "The walls keep going in the right direction, so I continue to be encouraged."

Despite the stress and sleepless nights, Schmid says the chance to open a new school has been "professionally enhancing."

"I've learned a lot of things that I hadn't thought of because you don't recognize how different opening a school is than just running one," he said.

Schmid, who previously was at the helm of Waubonsie Valley High School, said he hopes to have most, if not all, of his 95 necessary hires in place by mid-December. He's already on pace, having assembled 80 percent of Metea's department chairmen, two assistant principals and one of his two deans.

Metea's math and social studies chairs held those positions at Waubonsie under Schmid. The others, he said, have been liaisons or deputy department chairs in the district.

"As I build the leadership team, I'm seeing an exciting combination of experience and academic instruction come together," he said. "Thankfully we've got a large district with a variety of talents so whoever is selected from (Neuqua Valley or Waubonsie Valley) can be replaced with a new batch of solid leaders who are emerging."

He expects the staffing process to get more difficult when he begins "harvesting" teachers from the district's other schools. Other principals, he said, have even begun suggesting individuals they don't want to lose to Metea Valley.

Schmid himself had a hard time leaving Waubonsie Valley when he was pegged for the Metea job. He began his teaching career at Waubonsie in 1977. He left the school a year later and returned in 1992 as dean of students. He then served as the school's guidance counselor, director of guidance and assistant principal before being named principal in 2004.

"I know how it feels to get attached to a place," he said.

To begin the faculty hiring process, Schmid said he first asked for teachers who wanted to move and then considered their current responsibilities to extracurricular activities, sponsorships and coaching.

"I'll make my primary choices based on those matchups and then I'll have a meeting with the other schools' leadership teams and (Deputy Superintendent) Kathy Birkett and see what their responses are," he said. "I've never been through it but (Birkett) has when she opened Neuqua from scratch. She told me it will be uncomfortable at times but professional."

Initially Schmid said he thought he would hire about 80 percent of his faculty from within the district but says he recently discovered the percentage likely will be higher.

"I won't know for sure until I bang out some specific needs within the school," he said. "I imagine we'll need some new hires at some point, but I don't expect any at this stage.

"Plus, I think it helps morale and sends a message that, as a district, we have strength within."

Plus, he said, it helps to have some familiar faces around.

"This started as a collective group of me, but it's growing every day," he said. "It's nice to finally be able to look around and see a group of people getting excited with me."

Jim Schmid timeline

1977-78: English teacher at Waubonsie Valley High School

1978-82: English teacher and baseball coach at Aurora Central Catholic High School

1982-92: First assistant dean of admissions, then dean of student development at Aurora University

1992-94: Dean of students at Waubonsie

1994-99: First guidance counselor, then director of guidance at Waubonsie and baseball coach

1999-2004: Assistant principal at Waubonsie

2004-08: Principal at Waubonsie

Feb. 27, 2008: Named first principal of Metea Valley beginning July 1

August 2009: Metea scheduled to open