When we decided to move out of Chicago, we only knew one thing about Naperville: everyone told us it had great schools. Once we started researching, we found out there’s actually a bit of a rivalry between the two school districts serving the city. Naperville District 203 serves the north side of Naperville, while Indian Prairie School District 204 serves the south side and some of the surrounding cities as well.
Many newcomers to Naperville find themselves making home-buying decisions based on which district they want to send their kids to. They’ve compared ratings, reviews, awards… I did it too. My takeaway was that both districts rank in the top 0.5% of school districts in the entire nation. All the public schools in Naperville are amazingly great schools.
However, there are some differences. Naperville District 203 represents the older half of the city, while Indian Prairie School District 204 represents the area that’s been built out more recently. The old part of the city has more trees, older homes, and closer proximity to downtown Naperville. The school buildings are older and smaller too. The new part of the city is more spread out, with bigger, newer homes. Which means bigger, newer schools too.
There’s definitely a different vibe to both districts. Which vibe fits better is probably more important than the awards and rankings.
Napervillian 