Orion Middle School

Orion Middle School is a compact intermediate school in Orion, Illinois, one of the schools within Orion CUSD 223. The school hosts 244 students in grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 47% below the state mean of about 462.

Orion Middle School is one of 3 schools operated by Orion CUSD 223, a district that serves 963 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Orion Middle School records that 95% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.2:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.0:1, putting Orion Middle School higher than the state norm the norm. Around 19% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Henry County runs at roughly 43%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Orion Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 60.4%, the actual is 56.7%, a residual of -3.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Henry County indicate the typical household earns roughly $71,911 per year, roughly 25% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Orion Middle School is one of 28 public schools in Henry County (combined enrollment of about 7,723 students).

The closest other public school is C R Hanna Elem School, roughly 0.1 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around Orion Middle School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Orion Middle School at 2nd of 9; the average score across the group is 41.6%.

The campus sits in an outlying setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count changed only slightly: 241 students in 2018 compared to 244 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 15.6:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 today.

On this page, the feed for Orion Middle School typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.