West Jr High School

West Jr High School is one of the small middle-grades schools in Belleville, Illinois, run under Belleville SD 118, with 364 students on its rolls from grades 7 through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 462 students each, so West Jr High School sits 21% below that benchmark.

Across the 11 schools in Belleville SD 118 (3,275 students total), West Jr High School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, West Jr High School records that Black students make up the majority at 62%; the rest reads as 24% White, 8% multiracial, 5% Hispanic. By comparison, St. Clair County as a whole is about 28% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.4:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.0:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 74% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against St. Clair County (around 54%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), West Jr High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 29.0%, the actual is 37.0%, a residual of +8.0 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for St. Clair County put the typical household earns roughly $73,854 per year, 32% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. West Jr High School is one of 96 public schools in St. Clair County (combined enrollment of about 40,879 students).

The closest other public school is Abraham Lincoln Elem School, roughly 0.1 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), West Jr High School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 40.4%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at West Jr High School has edged down 11%, going from 409 students in 2018 to 364 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 37% to 24% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 15.9:1 in 2018 to 12.4:1 today.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.