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 (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.[citation needed] 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 and East Side District 131 does not operate any school buses).
Elementary schools
School's name
School's namesake
Location
Mascot
Colors
Principal
Year opened
Early Learning Academy
Aurora
Laurie Klamhous
2019
Fearn Elementary
Harold G. Fearn, former Superintendent of Schools
North Aurora
Falcons
Red & Black
Dave Russell
2001
Freeman Elementary
Captain Joseph Hewett Freeman, former Superintendent of Schools, former Illinois State Superintendent of Schools
Aurora
Mustangs
Maroon & Gold
Jana Ream
1928
Goodwin Elementary
Lucia Goodwin, former teacher
North Aurora
Eagles
Royal & Gold
Bob Halverson
1968
Greenman Elementary (originally Galena Street School)
A. V. Greenman, former superintendent
Aurora
Lions
Kelly & White
Cliff Englishharden
1895, original building — 2004, current building
Hall Elementary
Frank Haven Hall, former superintendent
Aurora
Huskies
Royal & White
Cherie Esposito
1960
Hill Elementary (originally Pennsylvania Avenue School)
Nancy Hill, former teacher and principal
Aurora
Hawks
Royal & Gold
Michael S. Smith
1888
Lincoln Elementary (originally Lake Street School)
