i don't recall any selling of NV before it opened. Perhaps this is part of their new PR machine. When NV opened it was the first new HS in DuPage Cty in 30 years -- a BIG deal. Now there are many new HS buildings in the area. I don't see any selling point??
These were from the Sun archives. I do remember the open houses for realtors,community, businesses,etc. I thought it was a mistake then and now.Why can't we just open the school and move on? Refer questions to the website. Forget the hoopla and press releases.IMO this is what started the whole "TAJ MAJAl" and "state of the art this and that" hype. Word spread fast...
NVHS TO HOST PRESENTATION FOR REAL ESTATE OFFICIALS
November 7, 1997
Publication: Sun Publications (IL)
Section: NEWS
Page: 31
A special presentation on Neuqua Valley High School is set for Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The event is meant to give real estate agents, home builders and developers information about the school and its place in the community.
Kathryn Birkett, Neuqua Valley principal, said, "We thought they would want background information on the building and the district and that they would want to hear from students as well.
We will give the real estate people a complete picture of student life and activities -- both as they are now and as they will be when the school is at capacity by the year 2000."
The event begins at 3 p.m. in the cafeteria.
Participants will then tour the building.
Reservations by interested agencies or companies should be placed by Nov. 12, with Paulette in the Indian Prairie School District 204 Community Relations Department at (630) 375-3014.
OUR NEW SCHOOL DIDN'T PLAY IN PEORIA
1997
Publication: Sun Publications (IL)
Section: NEWS
Page: 8
Editor's note: Often it's interesting to see how others see us.
The following editorial was published in The Peoria Journal Star. Though we in no way agree with the view expressed here, we are reprinting it so you can see how Neuqua Valley High School played in Peoria.
The Taj Mahal of Naperville
Few events better highlight the absurdly gross inequity in school funding in Illinois than this week's opening of the Taj Mahal of Naperville.
Neuqua Valley High School welcomed 900 students to class Monday in a spanking new, $62 million facility.
Not since Niles High School teachers walked off their jobs last year because they didn't make enough money -- the average salary exceeded $60,000 -- have many of us downstaters found something quite so offensive.
If perspective is what you're after, consider this: The two newest school buildings in Peoria, the Hinton Early Childhood Education Center and Lincoln Middle School, cost $7 million and $7.25 million, respectively, when they were completed in 1993 and 1994. Those are both attractive, sturdy, functional buildings.
But don't stop there.
Diane Cullinan's Technology Center in downtown Peoria will be made of glass and brass, will be filled with state-of-the-art computer equipment, will cover almost an entire city block and will require, unlike this high school, the expensive demolition of a large building.
Its cost? About $33 million.
So what could this $62 million high school possibly contain? Original Picassos? No, but there will be nine specialized computer labs -- that's nine for 900 students (Richwoods High School currently has four for about 1,300 students). There also are eight home economics kitchens, five soundproof music studios (kids might want to cut a CD, you know), two gymnasiums and a weight room.
And this isn't just some rectangular brick building, no sir.
It looks as good as it is expensive.
School officials in Naperville defended the building's cost by saying their kids "need" it -- a prostitution of that verb if ever there was.
But if their kids "need" it, don't kids in downstate Illinois "need" it, too?
We have this message for our pampered and somewhat self-absorbed suburban friends: Stop moaning about your property taxes, then pressuring Springfield to give your schools even more money, when you let your local school boards do something in-our-face like this.
The Indian Prairie School Board in Naperville did this because it could get away with it.
And because it did, it has further damaged public education's credibility with the taxpaying public.
Naperville pulls this stunt and, as far as many Illinoisans are concerned, every school district is guilty of this kind of gross excess; every teacher makes a minimum of $60,000 a year; every county ought to have property tax caps.
And as a result, true school funding reform doesn't have a prayer.
Well, we have news for you.
You won't find any $62 million school buildings in central Illinois.
Few would be worth a tenth of that.
Naperville only reinforces the case for how shamefully unfair Illinois' system of funding schools really is.
(Reprinted from the Peoria Journal Star.)
