Southwestern High School

Southwestern High School operates as a tight-knit secondary school in Piasa, Illinois, one of the schools within Southwestern CUSD 9. Current enrollment sits at 370 students spanning grades 9 through 12. That puts it 56% smaller than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 834 students.

Southwestern CUSD 9 comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 1,149 students; Southwestern High School is among them.

Looking at the student body, Southwestern High School reports that nearly all students (94%) are White. The remainder consists of 2% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, Southwestern High School records 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.8:1 average. An estimated 42% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, Southwestern High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 47.2%, the actual is 35.5%, a residual of -11.7 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Macoupin County) shows that median household income runs about $70,805, roughly 20% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Southwestern High School is one of 28 public schools in Macoupin County (combined enrollment of about 7,221 students).

Nearest neighbor: Southwestern Middle School, around 0.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 3 other public schools cluster around Southwestern High School. On composite proficiency, Southwestern High School comes 7th of 7 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 48.9%.

Southwestern High School operates from a small-town location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 21%: 467 students in 2018 compared to 370 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 15.2:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Southwestern High School typically covers pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.