Sangamon Sun

Menard County schools welcomed 1,716 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is a decrease of 0.8% from the previous school year, when there were 1,730 students enrolled in the county.

Menard County had the 21st lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 51.9% identified as male, and 48.1% as female.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 94% of its student body.

Within Menard County, Porta High School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 425 students.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Illinois public schools enrolled approximately 1.85 million students across nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 school years, Illinois public school enrollment declined from approximately 1.98 million to 1.85 million students, a decrease of about 127,000 students or 6.4%. This decline is significantly higher than the typical annual decreases of 0.5% to 1.5% observed in the preceding years, reflecting broader demographic shifts within the state.

School	City	Enrollment
Athens Junior High School	Athens	146
Athens Senior High School	Athens	311
Greenview Elementary School	Greenview	102
Greenview Junior/Senior High School	Greenview	106
Petersburg Elementary School	Petersburg	345
Porta Central School	Petersburg	281
Porta High School	Petersburg	425