Laketown Elem School

Set in Springfield, Illinois, Laketown Elem School is a very small elementary-level community, overseen by Springfield SD 186. It enrolls 135 students across grades K through 5. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Laketown Elem School sits 65% below that benchmark.

Laketown Elem School is one of 31 schools operated by Springfield SD 186, a district that instructs 13,014 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Laketown Elem School reports that the most-represented group is Black (50%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school logs 31% White, 14% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 13% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 8.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. Roughly 67% of students at Laketown Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Sangamon County (around 48%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Laketown Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.6%, the actual is 27.6%, a residual of -5.0 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Sangamon County put the typical household earns roughly $75,357 per year, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. In all, Sangamon County runs 77 public schools (combined enrollment of about 27,345 students), of which Laketown Elem School is one.

The closest other public school is Jefferson Middle School, roughly 0.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Laketown Elem School at 3rd of 8; the average score across the group is 20.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. Laketown Elem School's enrollment has declined 29% since 2018, when it stood at 191 (now 135). Over the same period, the Black share declined from 54% to 50%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 10.9:1 in 2018 to 8.4:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Laketown Elem School typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.