West Aurora Public School District 129 is a

unit school district A unified school district (in the states of Arizona, California, Kansas and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois), in the United States of America, is a school district that generally includes and operates both primary schools (kindergarten ...

in southeastern

Kane County, Illinois Kane County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 515,269, making it the fifth-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Geneva, and its largest city is Aurora. Kane County ...

. The present "West Side" school district covers the city of

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located primarily in DuPage and Kane counties, it is the second most populous city in Illinois, a ...

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 North Aurora is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,261. North Aurora maintains its own public library district, fire district, and police department, but public ...

. Students from Aurora, North Aurora,

Montgomery, Illinois Montgomery is a village in Kane and Kendall counties, Illinois. While roughly 45 miles from Chicago, it is not considered a Chicago suburb. The population was 20,262 at the 2020 census. Between 2000 and 2010 the village population grew 237 per ...

and

Sugar Grove, Illinois Sugar Grove is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 8,997, and in 2018 the estimated population was 9,803. Geography Sugar Grove is located in southern Kane County at (41.772529, -88.442374). ...

attend West Aurora schools. District 129 has a tradition in Aurora going back to the 1860s. The West Side High School and East Side High School 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 constructed as Oak Street school, on the ruins of a prior building, and was built by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) in the 1930s. Its interior still features WPA murals and sculpture. Joseph Freeman Elementary School was dedicated in 1928. Abraham Lincoln Elementary (decommissioned in 2009), was originally the Lake Street School, and Nancy Hill Elementary, originally the Illinois Avenue School, are over a century old. Two other school buildings exist on the historic sites of original school buildings. The Montgomery Elementary School was built in 1891. The present Nicholson Elementary, itself built in the 1950s and 1960s, replaced the Montgomery 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. 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 stood at the corner of State Street and Lincolnway in North Aurora until it was demolished in 2015), in 1968. The West Side District is the only one of the three major districts serving Aurora to own and operate its own fleet of School Buses: Indian Prairie School District has a contract agreement with

Laidlaw Laidlaw (), organized as Laidlaw International, Inc. (with corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois) was the largest provider of intercity bus services, contract public transit and paratransit, and contract school bus service in both ...

and East Side District 131 does not operate any school buses).

Elementary schools

Middle schools

High school

Special Education

References

Historical Background on Names of District 129 Schools
!-- appears to have been the source of names above -->
School District 129

External links

West Aurora School District 129
— official site {{Aurora, Illinois Education in Aurora, Illinois School districts in Kane County, Illinois 1860s establishments in Illinois