South Central Reporter

Southwestern Community Unit School District 9 welcomed 1,154 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is a 3.8% decrease from the previous school year.

Southwestern High School had the largest enrollment in the district with 372 students.

Southwestern Community Unit School District 9 roughly covers schools within Macoupin County and has a main office in Brighton.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of 3,977 schools. There were 130,467 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 15 students, compared to the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting demographic changes. Combined public and private K-12 enrollment dropped three percent between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.

School	Enrollment	Change from Previous Year (%)
Southwestern High School	372	2.5%
Southwestern Middle School	173	-8%
Shipman Elementary School	159	-5.9%
Medora Intermediate School	164	-5.7%
Brighton North Primary School	286	-6.2%