Summit School was built and opened in 1954.  The school was not completed at the start of the school year and students and staff had to wait until October to move into the new building.  Over the years enrollment continued to grow and in 1972 an addition was put onto the building doubling the size.  As was popular at the time, the new addition reflected an open concept model with no walls separating classrooms.  It also included a large Library Media Center and a large gym.  Staff had on-going concerns about the open-concept model and as enrollment continued to increase, Summit underwent a remodeling in 1983 in which the building was updated, including the installation of walls separating classrooms.  By doing this two additional classrooms were realized.  

In 1988, Marg Donner’s 3rd grade classroom was recycling newspapers and the Summit Student Council was collecting aluminum cans to support some environmental related enhancements to the school grounds.  Students put on a play, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” for the student body and afterwards the entire school got on board with these recycling projects.  Together they collected 5000 pounds of paper.  Some of the money raised went to buy wildflowers for the pond and some was donated to save endangered species at the International Crane Foundation, which the students visited that year.  

Later Mrs. Donner’s class took a walk around the Frog Pond and were appalled at the litter and garbage strewn throughout.  They began to research who owned the pond and surrounding land.  They determined it was the Town of Campbell so students wrote letters to the Town Board and went to Board Meetings asking for help in cleaning up the pond.  They also wrote to the Coulee Region Sierra Club asking for their help.  The TOC Board gave their blessing for the clean-up project and on May 3, 1988 50 plus people including students, parents, teachers, TOC Board members, members of the Coulee Region Sierra Club and neighbors all came together to clean up the pond.  The TOC passed an ordinance where anyone dumping or littering in this area would receive a $50 fine.  

At this same time the United States Environmental Protection Agency had a President’s Environmental Youth Award that schools could apply to win which was meant to reward young people for being an environmental force in their community.  Mrs. Donner’s class applied and won this national award, 1 of 10 nationwide.  

The EPA would pay travel expenses for Mrs. Donner and one student to go to Washington, DC to receive the award.  However, there were 20 students in the class who all had a part in winning the award.  The Summit PTA helped to raise $7000 to send the entire class to Washington on a bus for this purpose.  The award hangs in the hallway of Summit Environmental School yet today.  There was $2500 left after all travel expenses were paid and this money was used for enhancements for the Frog Pond area and environmental field trips.  In 1989, a Friends of Frog Pond group was established to help support environmental enhancements to the pond area.  

Every year since 1988, Summit students and staff have continued with environmental related activities.  In 2010, Principal-Dirk Hunter and the Summit School Staff worked collaboratively with the Summit PTO, School Board, and many different local and state agencies, including the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, to make environmental and sustainability education a major part of the instructional program at Summit.  This included changing the name of the school to Summit Environmental School.  Summit Environmental School is currently recognized across the state as a leader in environmental education.