West Aurora Public School District 129

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West Aurora Public School District 129 has a tradition in Aurora, Illinois going back to the 1860s. The West Side High School and East Side High Schools have played an annual football game against each other since 1893. Four of the current elementary buildings are reported to be four of the oldest still in use in Aurora and in Kane County. Mary Todd school was originally constructed as Oak Street school, on the ruins of a prior building, and was built by the WPA in the 1930s. Its interior still features WPA murals and sculpture. Joseph Freeman Elementary School was dedicated in 1928. Abraham Lincoln Elementary, originally the Lake Street School, and Nancy Hill Elementary, originally the Illinois Avenue School, are both over a century old.

Two other school buildings exist on the historic sites of original school buildings. The original Montgomery Elementary School was built in 1891. The present Nicholson Elementary, itself built in the 1950s and 1960s, replaced the original Montogomery Elementary building on the same site. The original Galena Street School was built in 1895. It was renamed Greenman Elementary in 1915, and was replaced by a new building, constructed on an adjacent lot, in 2004.

The present "West Side" school district covers the city of Aurora with an eastern boundary of the Fox River, a southern boundary of the Kane County and Kendall County line, a western boundary of Aurora's city limits, and a northern boundary of the village limits of North Aurora, Illinois. West Side District 129 absorbed the former North Aurora School District #51 in the early 1960s, constructing Schneider Elementary in that village's east side in 1963, and Goodwin Elementary (as a replacement for the former North Aurora School, which still stands at the corner of State Street and Lincolnway in North Aurora), in 1968.

The West Side District is presently the only one of the three major districts serving Aurora to own and operate its own fleet of School Buses (IPSD has a contract agreement with Laidlaw and East Side District 131 does not operate any school buses). Students from Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery, Illinois and Sugar Grove, Illinois attend West Aurora schools. In addition to the list below, fourth grade students from Freeman Elementary and fifth grade students from McCleery Elementary attend classes in the Institute for Collaboration building of the School of Education at Aurora University, also known as the Partnership School. While the students are still technically enrolled in their "parent" schools, the classes are overseen by the Partnership School's own principal.

1 Elementary Schools
2 Middle Schools
3 High School
4 Special Education
5 External link
6 Reference

[edit] Elementary Schools

School's name	School's namesake	Location	Mascot	Principal	Year opened
Fearn Elementary	Harold G. Fearn, former Superintendent of Schools	North Aurora	Falcons	Paul Barton	2001
Freeman Elementary	Captain Joseph Hewett Freeman, former Superintendent of Schools, former Illinois State Superintendent of Schools	Aurora	Mustangs	Michael S. Smith	1928
Goodwin Elementary	Lucia Goodwin, former teacher	North Aurora	Eagles	David Brusak	1968
Greenman Elementary (originally Galena Street School)	A. V. Greenman, former superintendent	Aurora	Lions	Erin Slater	1895, original building — 2004, current building
Hall Elementary	Frank Haven Hall, former superintendent	Aurora	Huskies	John Petzke	1960
Hill Elementary (originally Pennsylvania Avenue School)	Nancy Hill, former teacher and principal	Aurora	Hawks	Cindy Larry	1888
Lincoln Elementary (originally Lake Street School)	Abraham Lincoln	Aurora	Lynx	Curtis Hudson	1892
McCleery Elementary	Wayne McCleery, former superintendent	Aurora		Cherie Esposito	1957
Nicholson Elementary (originally Montgomery Elementary School)	Grace Nicholson, former teacher	Montgomery		Shirley LeClere	1891, original building — 1953/1962, current building
Schneider Elementary	J. P. Schneider, early settler for whom Schneider's Mill/Schneider's Crossing was named before it was renamed North Aurora	North Aurora	Bulldogs	Michael P. Smith	1963
Smith Elementary	Gertrude Scott Smith, former teacher	Aurora		Kathy DeTolve	1963
Todd Early Childhood Center (originally Oak Street School)	Mary Todd, former teacher	Aurora		Jan Oncken	1934

[edit] Middle Schools

School's name	School's namesake	Location	Mascot	Principal	Year opened
Herget Middle School	Robert Herget, former teacher, Principal and Associate Superintendent	Aurora	Huskies	Scott Woods	2005
Jefferson Middle School	Thomas Jefferson	Aurora	J-Hawks	Patricia Cross	1956
Jewel Middle School	Gary D. Jewel, former teacher and superintendent	North Aurora	Jaguars	Greg Scalia	1998
Washington Middle School	George Washington	Aurora	Generals	Deborah Meyers	1964