West Aurora Class of 60

Local History

West Aurora High School Historical Information

(February 21st, 1986)

The proud one hundred and eighteen year tradition of West High School began in 1868 and has been located in a variety of
settings. Two of its high schools were destroyed by fire in 1884 and 1905. The third school was constructed in 1906 and
was considered one of the outstanding structures in Northern Illinois because of its unusual dormer windows and modern
lighting system. This building was improved in 1934 via remodeling and the addition of fireproofing. Growth in the community
necessitated a larger facility which was constructed in 1953 and included additions in 1960 and 1966. The voters approved
the opening of a second campus through a referendum in 1974. In 1981 economic difficulties in the community ultimately
required the closing of the second campus and the consolidation of programs at the New York Street campus.

It all began in 1867 when Professor Frank Hall visited a few homes on the west side of the river and persuaded the parents
that they should enroll their children in a high school. This two-year program would be housed on the third floor in the old
Stone School, the space being converted into two rooms. Thereafter, on a Thursday evening, June 30, 1870, the West
Division Public School ? District 129, graduated its first class of four girls and one boy. One hundred and fifteen years later,
West Aurora High School graduated 499 seniors.

When the original high school was opened, it was proudly spoken that our "physical plant" was two rooms on the third floor
in the old Stone School, which had been built in 1852. In 1893-94, the Oak Street School, which had replaced the Stone
School consumed by fire, was fitted with its first gymnasium. Located in the basement, the gymnasium was a place "where
the youths may develop brawn and sinew; and it is hoped the young ladies will soon have a place where they may take
sufficient exercise." Indeed, in 1916, our third high school created a class in athletics for girls and exercise was thereafter
required for all junior and senior girls. Today, of course, a complete physical education program has evolved involving
thirty-five different activities for both girls and boys. A comprehensive athletic program is in place and the boys and girls
of West Aurora High School are among the most successful student athletes in the State of Illinois. Red and Blue pennants
along the rafters of the high school gymnasium offer evidence of State achievements in the top four by West Aurora
athletes over the years. The current high school has a gymnasium with a seating capacity of 3,150, a large field house
which accommodates an indoor track, four tennis courts, four basketball courts, two weight rooms and two wrestling
rooms.

Manual training at West Aurora High School was begun in 1915 with elementary drawing and simple tools. Our school, in
1924, created the first Vocational Building Trades Course in the State of Illinois. With this beginning, the Vocational
Education component in District 129 has been enlarged to the extent where a second addition had to be added as late as
1965 to accommodate pupils. Today there is a curriculum of comprehensive offerings in vocational education which involve
a significant number of our students. West Aurora High School is a part of the Southern Fox Valley Education for
Employment System which is currently involving area school districts in the joint planning and delivery of vocational
education. Twenty high schools, two area vocational centers, and Waubonsee Community College are closely involved in
this joint planning initiative.

Like many high schools in Illinois, West High School moved through a period in the late 1960's and early '70's where a
dramatic expansion of course offerings occurred. Elective opportunities were given heavy emphasis and major changes in
curriculum unleashed a proliferation of courses which were introduced by all departments. More recent history has shown
a reversal in this trend. Declining student numbers along with a reassessment of the value of the "cafeteria curricula" has
involved the high school staff in providing considerably more structure for student planning.

For the first eighty-five years of its existence, West Aurora High School operated as a four-year institution. In 1953, the
District 129 Board of Education opened its first junior high school and converted its senior high school to a three-year
institution. That pattern continued for twenty years, and in 1973, the organizational structure was returned to the
four-year high school with some space in the adjacent Jefferson Junior High School being used for overflow housing.
Thereafter, four years of overlapping schedules and an extended school day allowed West High to handle 3,300 students
with a building which was sized for only 2,400.

The concentration of so many additional students in excess of capacity at West High School finally convinced the voters to
approve a bond issue for an additional campus in 1974. Construction began thereafter and the building was opened in
September of 1977 with an enrollment of 934 students in the lower three classes. Unfortunately, very serious problems
within the local economy were developing which were to project further change on the horizon for West High School.

About the time the new high school opened, the decline in the number of high school students which was experienced
nation-wide began in earnest in Aurora. Very serious problems in the local economy accelerated the decline in student
numbers and complicated the financing of District 129's operations. The economic difficulties, which were ultimately to
encompass the entire region, had a head start in the Aurora area. Heavy reliance on the old "smoke stack" industries in
this community made school districts very vulnerable to problems within a fragile economy. A deteriorated tax base as well
as declining student numbers in the lower grades forced the Board of Education to grapple with the unpleasant prospect of
closing part of its school plant very shortly after opening a new high school.

West Aurora is a K-12 unit district and, as a result, had a variety of options for consideration in adjusting the size of its
physical plant for housing pupils. After major public hearings were conducted for community input, a decision was made to
deactivate the second campus of West High School and to consolidate the students again at the New York Street campus.
This option was chosen rather than that of closing multiple neighborhood elementary schools, because the Board of
Education believed that multiple school closings would have the most deleterious affect on the community. The Board also
believed that its newest school, the second high school campus, was probably the only facility which might be suitable for
another use. That view has recently been vindicated by the selection of the North Campus of West Aurora High School as
the home for the newly authorized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

The North Campus closed in 1981, about the time this region entered one of the most serious recessions to have occurred
since the Great Depression of the 1930's. There have been substantial declines in the local tax base, major plant closings in
the region, and double-digit unemployment has rocked the community for the past several years. Only recently are we
beginning to see encouraging signs of recovery in the local economy.

The tough decisions on school closings made early by the Board of Education, have somehow allowed District 129 to survive
this difficult period without catastrophic employee layoffs. Indeed, the West Aurora School district is one of the few
districts in Illinois so situated that has never laid off a tenure teacher. As a result of these decisions, however, West High
School operates today at its absolute capacity.

Twenty-six school buses bring sixty-six percent of the school's enrollment to the campus. These buses collect a student
body that is much more cosmopolitan than that observed by North Central evaluators just seven years ago. The school
district still remains about fifty percent undeveloped and from this area comes a very small percentage which could be
classified as rural. The major change within the District, however, can be seen among the substantial number of very needy
families that have appeared.

There has been very little additional housing stock added to the school district and economic development has been very
limited. Rather, dramatic development on the far east side of Aurora has been occasioned by a large new commercial
enterprise contained within the Fox Valley Villages. This, more than any single event, has dramatically directed growth
away from School District 129. There are some initial signs that the economic development which has boomed along the I-5
Corridor may at last begin to cross the Fox River and benefit people of the West Aurora School District.

Demographics change can also be found in the overall racial and ethnic composition of West High School. The student body
observed by North Central visitors in 1978 was about fifteen percent minority. Today the minority population has grown to
twenty-eight percent of the total student body, with sixteen percent of the number black, ten percent Hispanic, and two
percent Asian. Changes within the local economy and the student body have not altered the values and beliefs that this
high school and its faculty have in keeping to a strong academic tradition.

In 1978, the North Central visitors found the high school with a composite ACT of 19.1 and a sense of pride in the number of
its students who have received national merit recognition. A product of the years that have intervened since 1978 reveal
and ACT that has risen to 20.0 and an accumulation of 26 additional National Merit semi-finalists, 60 additional who have
received National Merit Letters of Commendation, and 9 additional National Merit Scholars. Two students have received the
National Merit Certificate of Achievement for Black Students and one has been named a Presidential scholar.

A school historian in 1916 once wrote, "The school without spirit is dead, but West Aurora High School is very much alive.
May her spirit continue to have the same ring in future years."" Those of us associated with West High School sense a
rekindling of that lively spirit in the Aurora community. We are in the midst of the transition to the new information-based
economy which will be so important to Illinois. The location of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy at the former
North Campus of West High School will be a further stimulus to change and a raising of the profile of education for the
entire community . . . the "same ring" continues for our future.