Winola Elementary School

As a tight-knit K-5 school in Viola, Illinois, Winola Elementary School educates 261 students from grades pre-K through 4, one of the schools within Sherrard CUSD 200. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Winola Elementary School sits 31% leaner than that benchmark.

Sherrard CUSD 200 runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 1,305 students. Winola Elementary School is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Winola Elementary School shows that the student body is overwhelmingly White (92%); the rest breaks down as 3% multiracial, 2% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Mercer County as a whole.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school lists 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. An estimated 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

With demographic context factored in, Winola Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.3%, the actual is 47.3%, a residual of -1.0 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Mercer County put the typical household earns roughly $74,182 per year, 21% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Across Mercer County's 8 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,941 students), Winola Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Matherville Intermediate School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 4.6 miles from this campus. Within ten miles, there are 6 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. On composite proficiency, Winola Elementary School comes 1st of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 39.5%.

The school occupies a rural site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Winola Elementary School has decreased 15%, going from 306 students in 2018 to 261 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 14.4:1 in 2018 to 16.3:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.