Metea Valley High School

Metea Valley High School is a high school in Aurora, Illinois that opened in August, 2009 in DuPage County. The school is one of four high schools operated by the Indian Prairie School District. The others in Aurora are: Waubonsie Valley High School and Indian Plains, while Neuqua Valley High School is in Naperville.

Preparations

Serving Indian Prairie School District 204, and opened for the 2009-2010 academic year for freshman and sophomore classes (grades nine and ten), Metea Valley cost $124.7 million to build, and can hold 3,000 students. The school met its full enrollment of students for grades 9-12 during the 2011-2012 academic year. The school began its first Prairie State Achievement Exams (used as a standardized testing measure of academic achievement) during the 2010-2011 academic year, and per Illinois High School Association Policy, the school was not fully recognized for interscholastic sports until that same academic year.

The school's namesake, a chief of the Potawatomi tribe, was selected during 2006. The school's colors are black and gold (maintaining a tradition of '<color> and gold' in all three high schools) and the school's mascot is the 'Mustangs'. The colors were announced in February 2007, and the mascot selection in March 2007. Both were chosen by those middle school students who began attending the school in 2009, as well as the current Neuqua and Waubonsie students in 2007. The School joined the Upstate Eight Conference in the 2010-2011 school year.

Metea

Chief Metea or Me-te-a (fl. 1812–1827)(Potawatomi: Mdewé "Sulks") was one of the principal chiefs of the Potawatomi during the early 19th century. He frequently acted as spokesman at treaty councils. His village, Muskwawasepotan, was located on the St. Joseph River near the present-day town of Cedarville, Indiana.

He acted as principal Potawatomi informant to William Keating, during the 1823 expedition into the Indiana territory by Major Stephen Long.

Metea died at Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 5, 1827. His death was caused by accidental ingestion of poison, which he mistook for whiskey.

Miscellany

Metea, a small town in Cass County, Indiana, and Metea County Park and Nature Preserve, an Allen County, Indiana park near Leo-Cedarville along Cedar Creek, are both named after Chief Metea. Also, Metea Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois is named after Chief Metea.

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