East Central Reporter

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

There were 1,166 students in the halls of Jasper County Community Unit School District 1 schools, 1.2% lower than the year before.

The enrollment numbers in Jasper 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, 53.1% of them were boys, and 46.9% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 96.2% of the Jasper County Community Unit School District 1's total enrollment.

Jasper County Community Unit School District 1 has a main office in Newton and is the only school district within Jasper 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
Newton Elementary School	498	501	-0.6%
Newton Community High School	385	415	-7.2%
Jasper County Junior High	171	155	10.3%
Ste. Marie Elementary School	112	109	2.8%