District 204: Do you believe in miracles?

Let's see, there was a power (company), a church and a divine result.

Board member Alka Tyle called it: The speed and success with which Indian Prairie Unit District 204 rebounded from the Brach-Brodie nightmare into solidifying a terrific location for Metea Valley High School was nothing short of a miracle.

Merriam-Webster defines "miracle" in two ways: "extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing or accomplishment." Word for word, perfect. Also: "an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs." Divine intervention? Not sure.

Who among us didn't fear that it was unlikely if not impossible for a new plan to be formed for the district's third high school in time for a fall 2009 opening?

I fully admit, I was leaning toward despair, starting to believe the future was bleak. Tyle agrees.

"If anyone had told me we would have a piece of land bigger than what we were looking for, for half the price of Brach-Brodie in less than four months, with a chance of an '09 opening, I would have told them to keep dreaming," she wrote in an e-mail discussing the matter.

This was a district that seemed to be stuck in the mud at every turn in the past few months -- the news went from bad (the jury's decision on the price of the Brach-Brodie site) to worse (no re-trial), settling in on depressing.

The school board had to put up with negative letters, some negative headlines and plenty of skeptical constituents through the fall and early winter. But behind the scenes, people were accomplishing big things.

"I am absolutely amazed at the passion, hard work and diligence with which no stone was left unturned" by administrators, Tyle said. "Once the decision was made in October to pursue other parcels, it was an all-out effort and a race against time to find land and find it fast."

It was easy to assume any available sites were the same old parcels that had been looked at before. Land does not materialize out of nowhere, after all.

One thing many overlooked, however, was that sometimes, land sort of does materialize -- land that previously was not for sale.

"So many things went right, one after the other, interspersed with other events that made it look as if things would fall apart. The last four months were a real roller coaster," Tyle said.

Administrators learned the previously uninterested church, St. John AME, was possibly interested in selling, and the adjacent power plant was in the process of being shut down and possibly sold. Immediate attempts to reach Midwest Generation were unsuccessful, until another amazing thing happened.

"One day a (District) 204 staff member saw someone at the site and he happened to be the right person and he connected us to the right people in the company -- then they showed interest in selling the land."

Ups and downs continued in private. Officials were dealing with two landowners at the Eola site and "every time there was new information, we would meet and review the updated financials and the pros and cons" of each site, Tyle said.

I have to say, as Tyle tells this story, it's the first time I've ever thought it might have been fun to be a member of the District 204 school board -- not words anyone has likely uttered in the recent past.

"What makes this a true miracle is that if things were delayed by even one more week, we would have lost the 2009 opening date, because of the tight timeline we are on," she said.

On Tuesday night, the board voted to purchase the 87 acres on the east side of Eola Road adjacent the Prairie Path.

Tyle praised the city of Aurora and Mayor Tom Weisner for help in annexing the land to Aurora, and was thrilled over the sort of response the announcement has generated.

"It is a miracle that out of the 850 messages received via our feedback survey in the last week, 71 percent were extremely positive and supportive."

Hold the presses. Double-check my facts. Yup, still talking about District 204 here. But if you thought 204 was breaking new recent ground with supportive resident comments, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Previously anti-third-high-school board member Christine Vickers is on board with this parcel, something Tyle called "the icing on the cake."

Cue the "Hallelujah" chorus. Happy days are here again in District 204? Don't get too warm and fuzzy … new boundary (oh, that word … ) recommendations are expected within weeks.

And yet, if 2008 continues as it started for District 204, you've got to have a little faith.