Walter R Sundling Middle School

Walter R Sundling Middle School, a mid-sized middle school in Palatine, Illinois, operated by Palatine CCSD 15, instructs 679 students, covering grades 6 through 8. That puts it 47% larger than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 462 students.

Within Palatine CCSD 15, which oversees 20 schools and 11,715 students, Walter R Sundling Middle School is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Walter R Sundling Middle School logs that the largest single group is Hispanic at 45%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school reports 35% White, 10% Asian, 7% Black, 3% multiracial. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 27% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 61 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.2:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Around 47% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Walter R Sundling Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.4%, the actual is 36.5%, a residual of -7.8 points.

Zooming out to the county, Cook County reports that median household income runs about $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Walter R Sundling Middle School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Lincoln Elementary School, roughly 0.7 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Walter R Sundling Middle School comes 5th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 41.9%.

Geographically, the school is in a suburban area.

Five-year trend. Walter R Sundling Middle School's enrollment has stayed largely flat since 2018, when it stood at 668 (now 679). Over the same period, the Hispanic share expanded from 18% to 45%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 17.3:1 in 2018 to 11.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Walter R Sundling Middle School community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.