Zion-Benton East High School

Zion-Benton East High School is a close-knit 9-12 campus in Zion, Illinois, part of Zion-Benton Twp HSD 126. The school instructs 419 students in grades 9 through 12. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 834 students each, so Zion-Benton East High School sits 50% smaller than that benchmark.

Within Zion-Benton Twp HSD 126, which oversees 2 schools and 2,533 students, Zion-Benton East High School is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Zion-Benton East High School lists that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 61% of enrollment. Beyond that, the school logs 20% Black, 10% White, 8% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 25%.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.8:1 average. About 61% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Zion-Benton East High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 36.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 25.8%.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Lake County) records that the typical household earns roughly $110,416 per year, about 48% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Across Lake County's 214 public schools (combined enrollment of about 118,032 students), Zion-Benton East High School is one campus in the mix.

Lakeview School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Zion-Benton East High School comes 2nd of 6 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 17.2%.

Zion-Benton East High School operates from a residential location.

Over the past 7-year window. Zion-Benton East High School's enrollment has climbed 23% since 2018, when it stood at 341 (now 419). Over the same period, the White share fell from 32% to 10%. Class-load math has grew: from 13.4:1 in 2018 to 15.5:1 in 2025.

On allk12, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.