Summit School District 104 is an elementary school district based in the village of Summit

Summit, Illinois

Summit is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,637 at the 2000 census. The village is best known as the setting to Ernest Hemingway's 1927 short story "The Killers".-Geography:...

, Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, and lies due west of the city of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 near the Cook County-DuPage County

DuPage County, Illinois

As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 916,924, White Americans made up 77.9% of Dupage County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 70.5% of the population. Black Americans made up 4.6% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.3% of Dupage County's population...

 line. The district is composed of five schools: four are elementary schools and the last is a junior high school. All but one of the elementary schools is located within the village of Summit. Students may begin their education as prekindergarteners in either Otis Graves Elementary School or John Walsh Elementary School, which educate students in kindergarten, prekindergarten, and grades one through four. Students may also begin their education as prekindergarteners at Donald Wharton Elementary School, although they will only remain there as prekindergarteners; those who graduate from the fourth grade in Graves and Walsh Elementary Schools then spend their fifth grade in Wharton Elementary School. The principals of the three schools are, respectively; H. Durkin, E. Fee, and R. V. Olavarri. A fourth elementary school in Bedford Park

Bedford Park, Illinois

Bedford Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 574 at the 2000 census. Bedford Park consists of a small residential area and vast amounts of heavy industry sprawling to the east and a small amount to the west.-Geography:...

, A. Gronkowski's Walker Elementary School, educates kindergarteners and students between grades one and four; graduates also move on to Wharton for their fifth grade. Heritage Junior High School, which serves grades six through eight, is the last school in the district that students will attend; it is directed by principal D. Lewis.

History

Summit School, the base for what would become Summit School District 104, was founded in the late 19th century. The school no longer exists as part of the district; however, the oldest existing active school is Donald Wharton Elementary School, which was founded in 1912 as Argo School. It was later renamed for principal Dr. Donald Wharton, who directed the school in the 1970s. The second oldest school in the district is John Walsh Elementary School, which was founded in 1923; it is named for school board member John D. Walsh. Similarly, Otis Graves Elementary School, which was founded a year later, also was named for a school board member. Walker Elementary School was the most recent of the elementary schools, and was founded in 1934 and named for board member W.W. Walker.

Heritage Junior High School, which was formerly known as Graves Junior High School, was renamed in honor of the Heritage Corridor

Heritage Corridor

The Heritage Corridor Line is a commuter rail line provided and operated by Metra in Chicago, Illinois, and its surrounding suburbs. While Metra does not specifically refer to any of its lines by a particular color, the timetable accents for the Heritage Corridor line are printed in dark "Alton...

.