South West Illinois News

Sparta Community Unit School District 140 had the highest enrollment among Randolph County districts, welcoming 1,158 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 51.9% of them were boys, and 48.1% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 74.3% of the Sparta Community Unit School District 140's total enrollment.

Among the six districts in Randolph County, Red Bud Community Unit School District 132 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 1,013 students, while Chester Community Unit School District 139 welcomed 908 students and ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Sparta Community Unit School District 140 roughly covers schools within Randolph County with its main office in Sparta.

In the previous school year, Sparta Community Unit School District 140 also had the highest number of students among Randolph County districts.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 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 several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

District	City (main office)	Total Enrollment
Sparta Community Unit School District 140	Sparta	1,158
Red Bud Community Unit School District 132	Red Bud	1,013
Chester Community Unit School District 139	Chester	908
Steeleville Community Unit School District 138	Steeleville	391
Coulterville Unit School District 1	Coulterville	218
Prairie Du Rocher Community Consolidated School District 134	Prairie du Rocher	130