this was on page one of today's sun times. I wonder if the technology
described can be used by a blind person
kelly
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A highfalutin high school
August 24, 1997
BY DAN ROZEK SUBURBAN REPORTER
Computers track student attendance. Every classroom has monitors with
Internet access. Two gyms, a pool and a weight room rival many health
clubs.
Welcome to Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, a $62 million
showplace that may be the most expensive high school built in
Illinois.
When it opens for classes Monday, teachers will take attendance by
logging on to a classroom computer and marking students absent or
present with the push of a button.
Computer-linked television monitors in all 124 classrooms allow video
announcements to be broadcast to students, but also let classes tap
into eight different educational cable television networks, the
Internet and the school's own computer network. Students ultimately
will be able to work in nine specialized computer labs--one for each
academic discipline offered.
The lavish features of the massive, 438,700-square-foot building
--designed to accommodate up to 3,000 students, although only about
900 will attend this year--don't stop at computer technology.
Music and choir students can practice in five, small soundproof rooms
and then perform in an 860-seat auditorium, complete with a lift that
raises and lowers a portion of the stage.
Science students can tend experiments in a greenhouse, technology
students will work in a four-bay auto repair shop, home economics
students can cook in one of eight fully-equipped kitchens.
Even the design of the horseshoe-shaped, red brick school is stylish
and innovative. Soaring spherical rotundas highlight the main entrance
and circular cafeteria, while classrooms are clustered in wings tucked
away from student lockers to dampen noise.
``It literally took my breath away --and that was with the carpets up
and not all the construction done,'' said technology coordinator Mark
Pennington, recalling his first visit to the school. ``It's an
exciting place.''
Officials in Indian Prairie District 204, the fastest-growing school
district in the state, insist they weren't trying to build a
showplace. The new school simply reflects changes in education and
society.
``We're not building the same types of homes as in the 1950s, and
we're not building the same types of schools,'' said Principal Kathryn
Birkett. ``The building doesn't make the school.''
Neuqua was built to ease overcrowding at Waubonsie Valley High School,
the only other high school in the booming, 46-square-mile district
that sprawls across parts of Aurora, Bolingbrook and Naperville in
DuPage and Will counties. Neuqua was the eldest son of Chief Waubonsie
of the Potowatomi tribe in the Fox Valley.
District enrollment topped 15,000 students last year and is expected
to continue soaring as more open land is developed. About 3,000 high
students are expected this year and about 6,000 by 2002.
But the sheer size of the district --it contains 26,000 households, as
well as heavily developed retail and office centers, including the Fox
Valley Shopping Center in Aurora--makes it easier for taxpayers to pay
the costs of providing first-rate schools.
In 1994, voters approved by a 2-1 margin a $97.25 million referendum
proposal to build Neuqua and five other schools. Earlier this year,
district voters approved an even larger referendum--$109.5 million for
eight new schools, an administration center and other projects--by a
wider margin.
Two middle schools to be built with some of the funds approved this
year will cost about $18 million each, while six elementary schools
will cost about $7.5 million each.
District officials say the eye-catching $61.75 million price tag for
the high school is somewhat deceptive.
The school is the first built in decades and reflects increased
building costs due to inflation and new computer technologies.
``It's not a matter of going nuts on this [school], because we
didn't,'' said District 204 School Board President Mark Metzger, while
acknowledging the cost may be the largest in Illinois.
At least one other new suburban school that will open this fall sports
a smaller price tag, but will serve fewer students. The new Bartlett
High School cost taxpayers in Elgin Area District 46 about $47
million. But Bartlett High is designed for about 2,200 students about
26 percent fewer than the Naperville school.
In Chicago, new high schools typically cost about $18 million each but
are built on a smaller scale, said Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman
Susan Vargas.
District 204 officials say they probably could have saved costs
upfront by choosing cheaper materials, but instead looked at long-term
costs.
``We admittedly chose expensive building materials, like stone,
because that's more efficient in the long run,'' Metzger said.
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