Aptakisic-Tripp Community Consolidated School District 102


Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 is a school district in Buffalo Grove, Lake County, Illinois. It operates four schools and covers grades Early Childhood through 8th grade and serves a population of approximately 2,590 students. Most students live in Buffalo Grove north of Lake Cook Road, a northern suburb of Chicago, and some live in the Lake County part of Wheeling, unincorporated Lake County, Illinois|Prairie View], Aptakisic, or Deerfield.

Schools

Students who live in the district will attend Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire; Stevenson is its own independent district, District 125.

Elementary

There are two K-3 schools, Tripp Elementary School and Pritchett Elementary School, in the district.


Pritchett Elementary School

Dr. Matt Moreland, Ed.D. - Principal

Mrs. Julie Cummings - Assistant Principal



Tripp Elementary School

Mrs. Tina Schenk - Principal

Mr. Kevin Locallo - Assistant Principal

Middle

There is one middle school for grades 4–5, which is named Meridian School. Early Childhood is also in Meridian.


Meridian School

Mr. Greg Michels - Principal

Mrs. Sadie Meyer - Assistant Principal

Junior High

The junior high school, grades 6–8, is named Aptakisic Junior High School, after Chief Half Day a local Native American chief from the Potawatami tribe.

Aptakisic Junior High School

Mrs. Dana Tamez - Principal

Mrs. Nicole Koren - Assistant Principal

Mr. Jonathan Weintraub - Assistant Principal
Meridian and Aptakisic are both Apple-distinguished schools, due to their use of technology like iPads in class.

History

The district was originally split into the Aptakisic School and the Tripp School during the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Due to the growth of the city of Buffalo Grove, the schools united into one in the 1960s. Along with a united district came a brand-new school. By the 1970s, the school was unable to handle the growing city, so it was torn down and replaced by Aptakisic School. By 1981, grades K-5 began going to the new Pritchett Elementary School. In the late 1980s, Tripp Middle School was built serving grades 3–5, at which point Pritchett Elementary served only grades K-2. Aptakisic School was then a junior high serving grades 6-8. By 1994, Meridian Middle School was built to handle grades 5 and 6, while Tripp Elementary School became an elementary school serving K-4, alongside Pritchett.
Expansion during 2017-2018 brought many changes. The district office that was a part of AJHS building moved to a neighboring building. The old district office was redesigned to be the sixth grade classrooms. A new wing was built for music, art, Spanish, band and orchestra. An Early Childhood wing was built for Meridian. Fourth grades from Tripp and Pritchett were moved to Meridian. Sixth grade moved to AJHS from Meridian. Tripp and Pritchett became K-3 schools. All projects were funded by a $18 million bond, approved in 2018 by the Board of Education.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, D102 remained remote in operations and utilized online technology to facilitate learning. In July 2020, it was announced that students would remain in fully remote learning at least through Oct. 5 of that year.
For the 2021–2022 school year, the district began operating in a hybrid capacity, with some classes fully remote, some virtual, and some a mix of the two.
In 2023, a new wing designated specifically for STEM was built out of half of the District Office, and in the summer of 2024, a link was built between Aptakisic Junior High School and the new science wing. The link was originally announced to be located underground, but it was built above ground. In 2025, construction of a new gym was completed at Aptakisic, and a parking lot was put in where Aptakisic Park was. As of late 2024, the STEM wing was primarily designated for science classes and after-school STEM clubs.

Electives and athletics

Currently, D102 offers Spanish, Band, Orchestra, and Chorus as electives for AJHS. Aptakisic Junior High School has also offered French in the past, but the program was later terminated. In all of the elementary schools, there is a mandatory encore rotation consisting of art class, music class, and Communication Media Arts, which is a combination of acting, speechwriting, and content creation, and an Engineering class, called Project: Lead The Way in elementary school. In Aptakisic, the encore rotation is mandatory for sixth grade, yet is optional for 7th and 8th grades, and contains health class instead of art for 6th grade. In 8th grade, an entrepreneurship class is included in the encore rotation. If a student does not take any electives in Aptakisic, a study hall class is available.
Aptakisic offers many extracurriculars and sports, including, but not limited to:
For most athletics, Aptakisic competes in the Patriot Athletic Conference against Twin Groves, Woodlawn, Fremont, Daniel Wright, and West Oak, all of which feed into Stevenson High School. Most Aptakisic students consider Twin Groves to be their rival, as they are on the other side of Buffalo Grove.
Aptakisic sports teams have won state and nationals for quite a few sports, such as:
In addition to all of the various electives & extracurriculars/clubs that AJHS offers, the school offers various leadership & service opportunities. The most notable of these opportunities is National Junior Honor Society (NJHS), a service/leadership organization for 7th and 8th Graders. Students at AJHS must demonstrate leadership and service to be eligible for membership. Additionally, students must not miss more than 10% of the school year and must maintain academic integrity.

Controversies

Stabbing incident

In May 2005, a student of Aptakisic was charged with the stabbing of another former student in a French classroom.
She was eventually sentenced with 5 years of probation, after making an apology in court.

Name change

In 2012, Aptakisic changed its mascot from Chief Aptakisic to the Eagles, due to the potential for issues of racial sensitivity and backlash.

Board of Education

The following is the Board of Education as of 2023:

Jordan Sklansky - President

Pelleg Graupe - Vice President

Vera Gaskill - Secretary

Deepa Ajmire - Board Member

Justin Parker - Board Member

Melissa Rose - Board Member

Jordan Salus- Board Member

In pop culture

Literature

's 2010 novel, The Instructions is set at Aptakisic Junior High School.