Chester High School

Chester High School is one of the cozy high schools in Chester, Illinois, run under Chester CUSD 139, with 335 students on its rolls from grades 9 through 12. That puts it 60% below the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 834 students.

Chester CUSD 139 comprises 2 schools with combined enrollment of 975 students; Chester High School is among them.

On demographics, Chester High School logs that the student body is overwhelmingly White (88%). Beyond that, the school lists 9% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Randolph County as a whole.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.6:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.8:1, putting Chester High School higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 39% of students at Chester High School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Randolph County (around 51%), the school's rate is south of typical.

With demographic context factored in, Chester High School is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 48.8%; Chester High School posts 24.2%, -24.5 points below that line.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Randolph County indicate median household income runs about $68,131, about 15% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Chester High School is one of 16 public schools in Randolph County (combined enrollment of about 3,876 students).

The closest other public school is Chester Elem School, roughly 1.0 miles away. Within ten miles, there are 2 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Chester High School at 9th of 9; the average score across the group is 38.8%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Five-year trend. Chester High School's enrollment has showed little movement since 2018, when it stood at 329 (now 335). The Hispanic share of enrollment rose from 3% to 9% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 14.0:1 in 2018 to 15.6:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.