Parkside Elementary School

Parkside Elementary School operates as a tight-knit elementary-level community in Normal, Illinois, part of McLean County USD 5. Current enrollment sits at 322 students spanning grades pre-K through 5.

Parkside Elementary School is one of 24 schools operated by McLean County USD 5, a district that caters to 12,407 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Parkside Elementary School shows that the largest single group is White at 51%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder breaks down as 20% Hispanic, 14% Black, 14% multiracial. By comparison, McLean County as a whole is about 78% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school lists 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 14.0:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 53% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is noticeably above McLean County's rate of about 40%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Parkside Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 40.9%, the actual is 32.2%, a residual of -8.6 points.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for McLean County indicate the typical household earns roughly $79,905 per year, 47% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, McLean County runs 60 public schools (combined enrollment of about 23,759 students), of which Parkside Elementary School is one.

Parkside Jr High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Parkside Elementary School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 38.5%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Parkside Elementary School has grew 3%, going from 314 students in 2018 to 322 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment declined from 25% to 14% over that span.

On this page, the feed for Parkside Elementary School typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.