Appleton Area School District


The Appleton Area School District, also known as AASD, is a school district that serves Appleton and Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Situated in the heart of the Fox River Valley of northeast Wisconsin, the AASD serves the city of Appleton and its nearly 75,000 residents. The Superintendent of Schools is Greg Hartjes and the current board president is Kay S. Eggert.
The Appleton Area School District serves 16,281 students in 15 elementary schools, 3 middle schools, 3 high schools and 14 recognized charter schools. The district spends $9,403 per pupil and has 16 students for every full-time equivalent teacher. It has a grades 9-12 dropout rate of 2.1% as of 2016.

High schools (Grades 9-12)

  • Appleton East High School
  • Appleton North High School
  • Appleton West High School

    Middle schools (Grades 6-8)

  • Einstein Middle School
  • Kaleidoscope Academy
  • Madison Middle School
  • Wilson Middle School

    Elementary schools (Grades 4K-5)

  • Appleton Community 4K
  • Badger Elementary School
  • Berry Elementary School
  • Columbus Elementary School
  • Edison Elementary School
  • Ferber Elementary School
  • Franklin Elementary School
  • Highlands Elementary School
  • Horizons Elementary School
  • Houdini Elementary School
  • Huntley Elementary School
  • Jefferson Elementary School
  • Johnston Elementary School
  • Margaret Thatcher Elementary School
  • McKinley Elementary School
  • Richmond Elementary School
  • Ronald C. Dunlap Elementary School,
  • Sandy Slope Elementary
  • Odyssey Elementary School

    Charter schools

  • Appleton Bilingual School
  • Appleton eSchool
  • Appleton Public Montessori
  • Appleton Technical Academy
  • Classical School
  • Fox Cities Leadership Academy
  • Fox River Academy
  • Kaleidoscope Academy
  • Renaissance School for the Arts
  • Stephen Foster Elementary Charter
  • Tesla Engineering Charter School
  • Valley New School
  • Wisconsin Connections Academy
  • The Omolade Academy

    Magnet schools

  • Odyssey–Magellan Charter School
  • * Odyssey is at Highlands, Magellan is at Wilson, no official building for just these schools.

    Historical schools

  • "First School" Destroyed by fire and replaced by Hercules School.
  • * Hercules School Demolished and replaced by Lincoln School
  • * Lincoln School, sometimes referred to as "Second Ward – Lincoln School". Repurposed as Appleton City Hall in 1938. The Appleton Public Library now stands where this school did.
  • First Ward School Fire in February 1857. New school completed in 1860 - ?
  • *First Ward School, renamed Edison Elementary School in 1932. Demolished in 1967, replaced on the same site by Edison Elementary School.
  • Second Ward School Building used as a high school during the winter 1859-1860.
  • *Second Ward School
  • Third Ward School, Building purchased and moved and remodeled to serve as St. Joseph's first church and school.
  • *Third Ward School became Third Ward High School/Free High School of Dist. No. 3 from 1891–1904. When high school students from this high school moved to Union High School.
  • *Third Ward School, Later renamed Jefferson School. Demolished, and current Jefferson School built on the same site.
  • Fourth Ward School Fire in September 1879 burned the school building to the ground. Rebuilt in ?
  • Richmond School, named for the mayor of Appleton at the time, G. N. Richmond. Replaced at the same site by current Richmond Elementary School, opened 1953.
  • Fifth Ward School, burned in October 1895. Replaced at the same site by Fifth Ward School.
  • * Fifth Ward School, renamed Washington School in 1925. Still standing as Washington Plaza Apartments.
  • Sixth Ward
  • *Amicus School Replaced by the Columbian School. Dedicated in January 1894. At some point the name of the school changed to Columbus Elementary
  • High School First graduating class 1878.
  • *Ryan High School, completely destroyed by fire. Replaced on the same site by Union High School.
  • * Union High School, moved its students to Appleton High School, then renamed to 'Carrie E. Morgan School, and used to house several schools, including a school for the deaf. Still used today as the Morgan Administration Building.
  • Franklin School. Renamed Jackson School in 1954 when it was forced to be re-opened by overcrowding. Demolished after its final closure in September 1977.

    1961-1962 Appleton School District merger

A 1959 Wisconsin state law required that all school districts have an attached high school in their district. In practice this meant that school districts without a high school either had to merge with districts that did, or build their own by a July 1962 deadline. Appleton School District ended up absorbing several schools and/or school districts to comply with the mandate.
In 1961 the Red Star School District was attached to the Appleton School District, after a vote to attach failed in 1959. At that time a new larger school was proposed by the school district, but building this never came to fruition, and the 1961 vote to attach succeeded.
  • Red Star School. A two room school, with one dedicated room for a kindergarten and the other a one-room schoolhouse format.
More schools were merged into the Appleton School District on April 25, 1962:
  • Badger Elementary School
  • Elmdale School A one room school north of Appleton, closed immediately after attachment to the Appleton School District. Used as district office space until 1964.
  • Speel School One room school closed immediately after attachment to the Appleton School District.
  • Triangle School One room school closed immediately after attachment to the Appleton School district, with pupils sent to Twin Willows or Badger.
  • Twin Willows School. Closed when Houdini Elementary School was opened.
  • Woodlawn School.

    Historical Select Schools

  • Miss H A Carroll School Started as the First Ward did not have a school house after the fire.
  • Mary Pratt
  • M Burroughs Summer School
  • Brooks High School