Naperville community members concerned about Indian Prairie School District 204’s current boundary adjustment concepts lined up in protest along Route 59 Saturday. The protesters were from neighborhoods between 83rd street and 95th Street.
Protesting Concepts
“So we are here to protest the school boundary’s attempted redrawing of boundaries, which will put us in a whole different set of schools. So where we have Welch and Neuqua within our community, which is walkable, we will be, pretty soon be bussing across major highways, railroad tracks and such,” Mission Oaks resident Jasti Babu said.
Under the district boundary committee’s ‘Concept #1,’ families north of 87th street would send their kids to Owen Elementary and eventually Waubonsie Valley High School, about 3.5 miles away.
“Let us continue attending schools which are local to us. If you are trying to bring in new communities, absolutely. But don’t let us and our children go to a distant school, lose access to extracurricular activities, prevent parents from volunteering in the school,” Babu said.
About 100 people came to the protest, at first split along Route 59 at three intersections, before coming together as a united group at 83rd Street.
District Boundary Adjustment
The district started the boundary adjustment process after seeing projected overcapacity in schools on its northern side, and underutilization in southern schools.
The district said concepts are drafts of what could happen, and are subject to change based on updated information or community feedback.
The next boundary committee meeting is October 27 at 6:30 p.m., at Still Middle School. The public is invited to observe boundary meetings, but won’t be able to provide feedback until a trio of community forums in November.
The community members at today’s protest are planning a protest march through their community on October 22.
Naperville News 17’s Casey Flanagan reports.
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!
