John Kennedy Middle Grade School

As a mid-tier elementary school in Kankakee, Illinois, John Kennedy Middle Grade School teaches 519 students from grades 2 through 6, one of the schools within Kankakee SD 111. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 36% bigger than typical.

Kankakee SD 111 comprises 10 schools with combined enrollment of 4,602 students; John Kennedy Middle Grade School is among them.

Demographically, John Kennedy Middle Grade School logs that 45% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder is composed of 34% Hispanic, 16% White, 5% multiracial. By comparison, Kankakee County as a whole is about 14% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 19.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 92% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Kankakee County runs at roughly 61%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, John Kennedy Middle Grade School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 18.3%; this one delivers 17.1%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Kankakee County indicate median household earnings sit near $71,281, roughly 21% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Kankakee County's 44 public schools (combined enrollment of about 16,499 students), John Kennedy Middle Grade School is one campus in the mix.

Taft Primary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around John Kennedy Middle Grade School. On composite proficiency, John Kennedy Middle Grade School comes 5th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 21.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a downtown area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 4%: 540 students in 2018 compared to 519 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share rose from 34% to 45%. Class-load math has widened: from 14.8:1 in 2018 to 19.7:1 in 2025.

On this page, the feed for John Kennedy Middle Grade School typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.