Lou Bellson

Crystal Lake, IL (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal

Bright Horizon

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Location: Crystal Lake
Industry: Education
Year Founded: 2010
Number Employees: 10-50 people
Business Stage: Creation/Idea
Entity Type: "S" Corporation
Description: Hello, My name is Lou Bellson; I have a beautiful wife Sonya, and 3 beautiful girls. I’m 42, and live in Crystal Lake Illinois. I have been in the education industry for over 12 years. Most of my tenure has been in a leadership role (Director of Admissions), for a few different schools in higher education. The last few years I have been working on starting my own charter school. I have an incredible opportunity right in my district. As you know, being raised in Illinois you are drawn in by tradition here. This is why it is a great place to be a kid and raise a family. I have such a great opportunity personally for a dream of mine and my family with this Charter School…but more importantly I have a chance to impact a community that needs this in more ways than one. This district last year had to shut down a K-4 school and bus the kids across to another functioning school within the district. The reason is money. The kids are great but the district wasn’t able to budget correctly and therefore had to make this move. This district has also had to make cuts to their teachers as well. On the land this school stands on, there are 7 baseball diamonds that are used to cater to one of the biggest little league programs in the area. They also used the gym for basketball leagues as well. People moved to this district for all the promise it had for generations both scholastically and socially. Unfortunately now the morale has dropped tremendously. Even with those still employed, they are worried about what might be next. I met with the district superintendant and spoke to him about my intentions. He is checking into my references and then we will get a shot at a proposal for the Charter. My planning committee (who has members who attended the school that was shut down when they were little), is passionate about getting this school back up and functioning. We have the Mayor of the City who will back us as well. Part of our proposal deals with hiring back faculty and reviving the fields and gymnasium as well. This is a huge win for everyone. I’m excited because it’s in my backyard and I can bring my heart and passion to this opportunity to ensure this opportunity succeeds. I am hoping that after reading this you would be interested in investing into this and making this dream happen or helping us to find an investor. The major part of the investment funds would go towards purchasing the building, and the renovations needed to it (it is 25 plus years old), but is in pretty good shape. The community is familiar with the school and it would pump life back into the community. The banks haven’t been much help, and finding investors in an economy like this is very tough as well. I know you have the resources and ideas that could help to make this happen. I would do anything and everything it would take to make this happen. I hope you see the opportunity and the impact we could have. I should be hearing back from the superintendent within a week’s time, if you would like to help, I would like to speak with you soon if possible to give you more specific information. Thank you for taking time in your day and reading this. I know there isn’t much information here in the email. I just wanted to summarize as much as I could, just for easy reading. I can tell you this….I can make this charter school endeavour successful. I have been doing this for some time in the education…(URL removed) no one would have more passion, heart, and commitment dedicated to something as I would this. I would want this to be my legacy. Thank you so much, Lou Bellson (Phone # removed)(URL removed)