Emge Junior High School

Emge Junior High School is one of the minimally staffed junior highs in Belleville, Illinois, one of the schools within Harmony Emge SD 175, with 146 students on its rolls from grades 7 through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 462 students each, so Emge Junior High School sits 68% below that benchmark.

Harmony Emge SD 175 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 735 students; Emge Junior High School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Emge Junior High School records that 46% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school lists 35% White, 11% multiracial, 6% Hispanic. By comparison, St. Clair County as a whole is about 28% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Emge Junior High School has 11 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.9:1. The state averages about 13.0:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 57% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Emge Junior High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 38.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 42.4%.

Zooming out to the county, St. Clair County reports that median household earnings sit near $73,854, roughly 32% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across St. Clair County's 96 public schools (combined enrollment of about 40,879 students), Emge Junior High School is one campus in the mix.

Harmony Intermediate Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Emge Junior High School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Emge Junior High School at 1st of 9; the average score across the group is 29.4%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 17%: 176 students in 2018 compared to 146 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share edged down from 49% to 35%. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 11.4:1 in 2018 to 12.9:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.