Lick Creek Elem School

Lick Creek Elem School operates as a micro-enrollment K-5 school in Buncombe, Illinois, operated by Lick Creek CCSD 16. Current enrollment sits at 126 students spanning grades pre-K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 67% below the state mean of about 381.

Lick Creek CCSD 16 is the operating authority for Lick Creek Elem School, handling staffing, calendars, and reporting to the state department of education.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Lick Creek Elem School records that the student body is overwhelmingly White (92%); the rest comes out to 5% multiracial, 2% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Union County as a whole.

On the resource side, The school currently runs with 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 10.5:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. An estimated 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Union County runs at roughly 63%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Lick Creek Elem School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 48.6% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 50.3%.

In the surrounding community, Union County reports that the typical household earns roughly $55,728 per year, roughly 21% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. In all, Union County runs 18 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,478 students), of which Lick Creek Elem School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Buncombe Cons School, around 7.3 miles off. Within ten miles, there are 8 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Lick Creek Elem School at 1st of 8; the average score across the group is 39.5%.

The school occupies a rural site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 14%: 147 students in 2018 compared to 126 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 12.6:1 in 2018 to 10.5:1 today.

Inside the community feed, members of the Lick Creek Elem School community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.