Opinions may vary on its exterior appearance, but we all know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. What you’ll find inside Metea Valley High School is a great deal of enthusiasm, energy, and school spirit in an environment well-designed for student learning.
After seeing the hubbub of construction on a daily basis for over a year, we finally got to see the interior on Tuesday, August 11. This is when incoming students had their orientation and dance and their parents had an information session and were given the chance to tour the building.
Everyone else gets their turn to go inside on Sunday, October 4, when the public is invited to attend the school’s formal dedication at 2pm followed by an open house until 5pm. The day before, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 3 the Mustangs will play a home football against the Neuqua Valley Wildcats at 1pm. There is no cost to attend this meeting of sophomore teams and this is a great opportunity to see an exciting football game as well as performances by the Metea Valley marching band, color guard, poms, and cheerleaders.
On Saturday, August 22 the school held Mustang Mania. Here we had our first glimpse of several different sports teams and the marching band. The PTSA and Sports Boosters had tables set up and concessions were available. This was a well-attended event, as was the first home football game on September 11, in which the stands were well over half filled despite the fact the school’s student body will more than double in size in the next two years. Many families who don’t even have high school students were there with their young children.
The great things going on here didn’t start with the first day of school. Principal Jim Schmid, his staff, the PTSA, and sports booster parents have been hard at work for quite some time, yet it feels like school spirit happened virtually overnight. Many new Mustangs had been looking forward to being Waubonsie Valley Warriors, yet the transition has gone well. Some MVHS students attended the first football game at WVHS with friends, and then some WV students attended MV’s first home game the following week.
The start of the school year is by all appearances going remarkably well. Clubs and sports have larger than expected numbers of participants. Sports teams are winning. Audition and non-audition extra-curricular music groups are set up and rehearsing. A spring break band trip to Disney World and a summer break trip to Spain for students who will have completed Spanish 2 are in the works.
The school’s fall play, “I’m getting Murdered in the Morning” has been cast. It will be a dinner theater wedding reception held in the school’s cafeteria on October 22, 23, and 24.
Metea Valley Student Government (MVStudentGo) is working on its constitution and planning fall events. In lieu of homecoming a new high school has events that are like homecoming would be in another school, but named differently since there are not yet any alumni. Metea’s Black and Gold Masquerade Dance will be held the evening of Saturday, October 3. Leading up to that weekend will be spirit week with the following days – Monday is Sports Team Day, Tuesday is Twin Day, Wednesday is Decades Day, Thursday is College Day, and Friday is Black and Gold.
As expected, freshman and sophomore students get to do things in this school they would not have if they’d been in a school that has juniors and seniors. They get to join some organizations and/or hold leadership roles that would not have been available to them otherwise. I heard from chorus director Nathan Bramstedt that he is working with his students to perform at the upper level from the start, that they will be performing as juniors and seniors would. In this district’s music program, that’s impressive.
At curriculum night on September 17 I was impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the teachers and other staff as well as by the number of parents in attendance; it was standing room only in almost every classroom I was in.
I love the layout of the building and how easy it is to get from one place to another, in addition to how easy it is to find the rooms and for the students to have access to their lockers, their counselors, and academic help throughout the day. The facilities are impressive and the new Mustang mural in the gym is beautiful.
The administration, staff, students, and parents have already come together to form a new school community and have begun new traditions in an environment with ample opportunity for all.
Metea Valley High School is located at 1801 N. Eola Road, Aurora.
SherryTatar@ameritech.net
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