Indian Prairie School District 204 is currently in the process of redistricting, and one of the potential proposals, Concept #2, recommends closing and "repurposing" Builta Elementary School. We, the parents, students, alumni, and community of Builta Elementary love our school, and we are vehemently against closure, which would shatter our neighborhood and school community. 

We do NOT want our children bussed far away to another neighborhood where they have no connections.  We do NOT support Concept #2!

We ask the IPSD Boundary Committee and the IPSD School Board to reconsider closing any elementary schools and to keep Builta open. 

Closing Builta would be the wrong choice because:

1. Builta is the ONLY one of the three schools under consideration for "repurposing" that has an obvious and guaranteed source of new students. Pulte Homes has already broken ground on the new Sawgrass subdivision, with 121 homes that will attend Builta. These are likely to be families with young children. Our school population is actively growing! 
2. Builta is the HIGHEST RANKED of the three schools under consideration for "repurposing," with a ranking of #3 best elementary school in Illinois, according to niche.com.  
3. Builta is the LARGEST AND NEWEST of the three schools under consideration, with the most capacity to hold students who are transferred in and the most capacity for growth, if numbers change on the south side of Naperville over time.  It is also freshly updated with a brand-new air conditioning system. 
4. Builta is GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED. Our neighborhood is physically separated from all surrounding neighborhoods on three sides, with the river, the water treatment plant, the quarry, and the golf club separating our area. This means we are not only a defined community, but that sending our children elsewhere takes them far out of their neighborhood, involves long bus rides, and makes them geographically far and isolated from other classmates. This is one of the outcomes the IPSD boundary committee says it wants to avoid! 
5. Builta is the ONLY school in 204 located in Bolingbrook. We are often slighted for being "not Naperville," but we are an equally important part of this school district and the board should not send the message that its Bolingbrook students and residents are lesser or devalued by closing the only school in our town. 
6. Builta hosts a UNIQUE AND COHESIVE South Asian community, with about 50 percent of students, and we have developed a special connection within our school that should be valued. Builta has worked hard to hire South Asian teachers and staff members, and we value that diversity and community and do not want to lose it. 
7. Builta children have ENDURED ENOUGH TRAUMA throughout the pandemic, as have all the children of 204. Closing our schools is NOT a viable option. It displaces students and compounds their sense of trauma and loss of connection, effects that can shape them for a lifetime. It is absolutely the WRONG decision at this moment. We oppose the closure of 204 elementary schools!