About our school…

On Armistice Day (November 11, 1918) the doors of Lily Lake Grade School were opened to welcome students and community members from the surrounding rural countryside. The building was constructed when four area schools were consolidated in the western part of Campton Township. A referendum requesting $11,000 was passed to build the original, two-story structure. Students called themselves the “Lily Lake Lines” due to the school’s animated theatre group. Additionally, boy students were known to enter the building using the northern entrance, and the girls were to use the southern entrance. For
decades, the school and its learning environments remained unchanged.

From 1920 to 1940, the school also served as the location for the Lily Lake Community Fair. Each September, local farmers and families would showcase their livestock, produce, kitchen creations, household wares, and crafts. They would also enjoy exhibits of entertainment including a plowing contest, door prizes, a horse-pull, athletic events, and an elaborate picnic lunch hosted by the Congregational Church Ladies’ Aid Society. Businesses throughout the Fox Valley area supported this festive event.

As western Kane County began to grow and change, so did Lily Lake. From the building structure to the dynamics of the school organization, Lily Lake Grade school continued to adapt and grow. The school mascot changed from the “Lines” to the “Lily Lake Lions,” and in 1960 a small gymnasium was added to the two-story building. Then, in 1979 a more elaborate addition of a full-size gym, kitchen, six classrooms, and a school office was built. Finally, in 2000, Lily Lake welcomed a new computer lab and library to the school grounds.

Despite the elements of change that are ever-influencing Lily Lake, this nostalgic school continues to foster many core values from its past. Academic excellence and community involvement remain as fundamental philosophies. As a result, the state of Illinois continues to recognize Lily Lake for its superior performance with the revered Excellence Award for Exemplary Academic Performance on the Illinois Learning Standards, and it will confidently transition into the future with its endless commitment to ambition, effort, and care.