Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School

Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School operates as a modestly sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Current enrollment sits at 241 students spanning grades K through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School sits 37% smaller than that benchmark.

Within Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, which oversees 622 schools and 324,396 students, Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School reports that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (98%). By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 22% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School has 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.5:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.9:1, putting Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School tighter than the state norm the norm. About 57% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 38.7%; this one comes in at 22.9%, -15.8 points off the demographic line.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Cook County) logs that median household income runs about $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School is one of 1406 public schools in Cook County (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students).

The closest other public school is CICS - Loomis Primary Campus, roughly 0.5 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School. On composite proficiency, Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School comes 5th of 8 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 28.0%.

The campus sits in a high-density setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Vanderpoel Elem Magnet School has shrank 14%, going from 280 students in 2018 to 241 in 2025. Class-load math has tightened: from 17.4:1 in 2018 to 12.5:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.