South West Illinois News

Waterloo Community Unit School District 5 welcomed 2,676 students in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

This is a 2.2% increase over the previous school year.

Waterloo High School had the largest enrollment in the district with 843 students.

Waterloo Community Unit School District 5 roughly covers schools within Monroe County and has a main office in Waterloo.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of 3,977 schools. There were 130,467 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 15 students, compared to the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting demographic changes. Combined public and private K-12 enrollment dropped three percent between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.