South West Illinois News

Monroe County schools welcomed 4,977 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is a decrease of 1.4% from the previous school year, when there were 5,049 students enrolled in the county.

Monroe County had the 40th highest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 52.8% identified as male, and 47.2% as female.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 93.5% of its student body.

Within Monroe County, Waterloo High School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 852 students.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Illinois public schools enrolled approximately 1.85 million students across nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 school years, Illinois public school enrollment declined from approximately 1.98 million to 1.85 million students, a decrease of about 127,000 students or 6.4%. This decline is significantly higher than the typical annual decreases of 0.5% to 1.5% observed in the preceding years, reflecting broader demographic shifts within the state.

School	City	Enrollment
Columbia High School	Columbia	592
Columbia Middle School	Columbia	612
Eagleview Elementary School	Columbia	294
Gardner Elementary School	Waterloo	383
Parkview Elementary School	Columbia	434
Rogers Elementary School	Waterloo	430
Valmeyer Elementary School	Valmeyer	154
Valmeyer High School	Valmeyer	108
Valmeyer Junior High School	Valmeyer	82
W.J. Zahnow Elementary School	Waterloo	464
Waterloo High School	Waterloo	852
Waterloo Junior High School	Waterloo	572