School District 204: June 2008 Archives

If you're a glass-half-full person, you can view the construction bidding process for Metea Valley High School with optimism and say that Indian Prairie School District 204 is on track to build the school for $4 million less than the $101.7 million estimate.

But if you're a glass-half-empty person, you'll be concerned to hear that the lowest bid for the electrical work came in $4 million -- or 50 percent -- more than expected.

Among the complications and concerns cited by potential and actual bidders: obtaining bonding; the massive size of the project and the relatively short amount of time they'd have to complete it; and subcontractors struggling to work around each other and complete their respective projects in the same areas of the building at the same time, a story in today's Sun reports.

These sound like predictable problems given the timetable to open by August '09.

One hopes all stays on track and the building comes in on time and under budget. (Mind you, change orders tend to alter the actual costs quite a bit by the time all is said and done. Sometimes change orders reduce costs. Usually not.)

What do you think: How likely is it that Metea will open on time and within budget?

Sure, of course you do. That stuff you read/hear about would never happen to you, because you monitor what your children do online. That's why there's no need for you to go to tonight's Internet safety meeting in Naperville for parents, right?

Let's do a quick poll: How many of your kids have MySpace or Facebook accounts? Ever had to order your kid to remove a photo from one of those sites? Ever consider they might be creating additional accounts and hiding them from you?

Do you let your child have a computer in his/her bedroom, with a web cam? That's just asking for trouble.

How about cameras on cell phones? It's becoming quite common for kids to take nude pictures of themselves or their friends and send them electronically to each other, as pranks, or sometimes to spite someone. Have you ever asked to look at the pictures stored in your kid's cell phone?

Just a few thoughts. Creepy predators using the Internet to lure kids is so 2004. Nowadays, it's more about how kids are using technology to embarrass themselves and their families.

Monday's Sun features a report about the Illinois Teachers Retirement System. It's $22 billion underfunded. That's money the state owes it, but hasn't yet paid, because Illinois has a tendency to balance its budget the only way it knows how--by deferring mandated payments to retirement systems (the state also drags its feet reimbursing health care providers). Overall, the state's running a $42 billion deficit in pension funding.

TRS and teachers' unions say their pensions are not excessively generous, that only a few administrators get the golden-parachute deals we hear about. And that recent laws have curtailed excessive end-of-career raises that bump up retirement benefits. The average annual benefit TRS pays out is about $40,000 a year, or $3,344 a month.

What do you think? Is this entirely a state problem? Are teachers' pensions too low, too high or just right? What other laws should be enacted to curb abuses of the pension system?

(Editor's note: an earlier version of this entry incorrectly reported the amount of the state's TRS deficit.)

Voters agreed to spend the money to build it. Figuring out where to build it caused much debate and several legal battles. But with Tuesday's ceremonial groundbreaking, Indian Prairie School District 204's third high school finally and irrevocably took on a tangible quality. It's here, or at least they tell us it will be by fall 2009.

How fitting that Metea Valley High School's formal groundbreaking should occur on the day that Barack Obama clinches the Democratic nomination for president. How ironic that two drawn out, take-no-prisoners battles should conclude (in Metea's case, symbolically at least) on the same day.

Seeing architectural renderings for the first time, hearing the congratulatory words from Aurora officials, it all seems so real now. Metea is going to happen. It'll be a great school, folks, we're sure. Yes, there's still the unresolved lawsuits with the Brach and Brodie trusts over the abandoned site where district officials promised to build the school, and we've no idea how much those will end up costing the district and taxpayers. But nothing now is going to change the fact that Metea is moving forward. It's inevitable. Game over.

What now? Well, there's an awful lot of healing to be done, if it can be. The battle over Metea divided the community and caused a lot of hurt feelings. Just as Hillary Clinton must concede the nomination and support her party's candidate, isn't it time for those who fought Metea to come around and accept it? Or are we way off? Will some Mettea opponents carry on the fight, like some of Clinton's die hard supporters? What will they have to gain?

One last thought. Even if you don't support the school board and/or administration, why not embrace the school at this point? It's going to be a very nice school, assuming all goes as planned. Are you willing to accept it, now that construction has started?