Original Research by School Decision on South School
South School serves only pre-kindergarten students in Westmont, a southwest Chicago suburb in DuPage County. The school is a small program with an enrollment drawn from the community and neighboring areas.
Westmont itself is a mixed suburban landscape with a defined downtown core anchored by the Metra BNSF station and transit-oriented development, ringed by residential neighborhoods and light industrial corridors. The community is ethnically diverse, with about a quarter of residents born outside the United States. Locally significant employers include Ty Inc.'s world headquarters, automotive dealerships, and professional services firms. The Westmont Park District operates parks and recreational amenities including Ty Warner Park, and the public library serves as a civic anchor. The village is in the midst of downtown revitalization focused on dense, transit-adjacent mixed-use development, with comprehensive zoning changes approved in August 2025 to encourage residential and commercial density near the station.
South School's student body reflects Westmont's diversity. Roughly two in five students identify as Hispanic, more than two in five as white, and smaller shares as Black or Asian. No meaningful gaps appear among these groups in terms of school serving.
The school's pre-K focus means it does not participate in state testing or reporting for proficiency, graduation, or attendance metrics. Those assessments apply to grades K through twelve. No data on special education enrollment or English learner status is available from the school record.
South School is part of CUSD 201, which has faced challenges in recent facilities planning. Voters rejected a November 2024 bond referendum by a single vote, and then rejected a second facilities referendum in April 2025. The failed referendums would have funded construction of a new elementary school to replace aging buildings, classroom renovations, and mechanical and security upgrades. Those improvements have not moved forward. The district's elementary facilities therefore remain in their current condition rather than being modernized. For families considering South School and the broader district, this is a meaningful context: the schools serving early grades operate in buildings that will not receive the planned updates in the near term.
Housing in the 60559 zip code is in the mid-range for the Chicago region, with a median home value that has risen modestly in recent months and median rent roughly steady. The affordability outlook is mixed; monthly rent as a share of household income runs above the national norm, though home purchase remains feasible for households at or above median income.
State testing data was not available because South School serves only pre-kindergarten, a grade band not subject to state assessment. No comparison positioning among DuPage County districts is applicable for the same reason.
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