Galesburg Reporter

The only school district in Henderson County suffered a drop in enrollment numbers in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

There were 729 students in the halls of West Central Community Unit School District 235 schools, 2.7% lower than the year before.

The enrollment numbers in Henderson County amplified the state's declining trend, showing a sharper decrease in student numbers than the state average.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 52.5% of them were boys, and 47.5% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 92.9% of the West Central Community Unit School District 235's total enrollment.

West Central Community Unit School District 235 has a main office in Biggsville and is the only school district within Henderson County.

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.

School	Total Enrollment in 2021-22	Total Enrollment in 2020-21	Total % Change
West Central Elementary School	313	304	3%
West Central High School	204	220	-7.3%
West Central Middle School	161	169	-4.7%
West Central Early Childhood	51	56	-8.9%