St Elmo Elem School

Set in Saint Elmo, Illinois, St Elmo Elem School is a cozy elementary school, one of the schools within St Elmo CUSD 202. It instructs 222 students across grades pre-K through 6. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 42% below typical.

St Elmo CUSD 202 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 390 students; St Elmo Elem School is among them.

On demographics, St Elmo Elem School logs that 96% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, St Elmo Elem School has 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.8:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 57% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

With demographic context factored in, St Elmo Elem School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 38.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 49.1%.

In the surrounding community, census data for Fayette County shows the typical household earns roughly $60,944 per year, roughly 17% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. In all, Fayette County runs 15 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,858 students), of which St Elmo Elem School is one.

St Elmo Jr High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around St Elmo Elem School. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), St Elmo Elem School ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 38.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a countryside area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 10%: 247 students in 2018 compared to 222 in 2025. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.0:1 in 2018 to 13.8:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for St Elmo Elem School typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.