Benjamin Elem School

As a heavily attended elementary campus in Bloomington, Illinois, Benjamin Elem School caters to 607 students from grades K through 5, overseen by McLean County USD 5. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Benjamin Elem School sits 59% larger than that benchmark.

Across the 24 schools in McLean County USD 5 (12,407 students total), Benjamin Elem School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

In terms of who attends, Benjamin Elem School shows that 48% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school shows 31% Asian, 7% Hispanic, 5% Black, 5% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 78% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully less White than the area baseline.

On the resource side, The school reports having 34 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 18.1:1. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Roughly 11% of students at Benjamin Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, McLean County runs at roughly 40%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Benjamin Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 65.1%, the actual is 58.4%, a residual of -6.7 points.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for McLean County put median household income runs about $79,905, roughly 47% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Benjamin Elem School is one of 60 public schools in McLean County (combined enrollment of about 23,759 students).

Evans Junior High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 3.9 miles from this campus. 5 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Benjamin Elem School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 58.5%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 7%: 568 students in 2018 compared to 607 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 62% to 48% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 21.0:1 in 2018 to 18.1:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Benjamin Elem School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.