Mahomet-Seymour Schools receive “commendable” rating on Illinois Report Card, publication awaits classroom numbers

By Dani Tietz

All four Mahomet-Seymour Schools received a “commendable” rating on the 2022 Illinois Report Card, an annual report released by the Illinois State Board of Education. The highest ranking designation is “exemplary.” 

This is the first time since 2019 that Illinois school districts have received a designation. The measure was paused to account for COVID-19 impact. 

Key components of the 2022 designation include ELA and Math Proficiency, Science Proficiency, Student Growth, Chronic Absenteeism, English Learner Progress to Proficiency, Graduation Rate, and School Improvement Status. The report also continues to break down each district’s finances, expenditures per student, teacher retention, attendance, enrollment, and salaries.

According to the district’s reported enrollment on the sixth day of school, Mahomet-Seymour’s enrollment grew from 3,170 in 2021(based on 2020 data) to 3,325 district-wide in the 2022 report (based on 2021 data). 

According to numbers provided by the district in other circumstances, district enrollment in the 2020-21 school year was 3117; 3270 in 2021-22 and is currently 3441. 

Recent data from the Mahomet-Seymour School District says that there are 824 students at Middletown Prairie, 792 at Lincoln Trail, 813 at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High, and 1,012 at Mahomet-Seymour High School. 

With discussions about the Nov. 8 $59.4 million referendum and capacity at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High, WCIA reported 40 students in a classroom at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High while the Illinois Report Card reports the average class size there is 26. 

The Mahomet Daily sent a FOIA on Oct. 26 asking for class sizes throughout the school in an attempt to paint an accurate picture for constituents. The response for that request is pending as Superintendent Kenny Lee said, “This will take a few days, as I do not believe that we have one document that contains all of the request, so it may be several different documents.”

That response may come on Nov. 9, pending review.

The Illinois Report Card says that the average class size throughout the district is 23. A second FOIA request was submitted on Nov. 4 in order to look at the numbers district-wide. The Mahomet-Seymour School District, which had a total of 201 teachers also had a student-to-teacher ratio of 19:1 whereas the state average is 17.1. 

The Illinois Report Card shows that the district spends $9656 per student at Middletown Prairie, $9,435 per student at Lincoln Trail, $9,969 per student at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High, and $11.397 per student at Mahomet-Seymour High School. On average, spending per student increased by 6.25-percent to $10,203 per student over the previous year.

Total District expenditures were $41,455,273, and the district is 64.6-percent adequately funded with $24,173,379 of Evidence-Based Funding Resources, according to the Evidence-based funding model.

Chronic Absenteeism is a 26.8-percent, below the state average of 29.8-percent, but up from pre-pandemic levels at 15.2 percent. Administrators will address absenteeism as they present school improvement plans during Monday night’s Board of Education meeting. 

The district’s dropout rate dropped to 3.7-percent from 4.1-percent but is also still higher than pre-pandemic levels at 2.8-percent. 

Just like absenteeism during a pandemic may not be an accurate picture for students, especially when people were required to quarantine when exposed or infected with COVID-19, teacher attendance was lower than previously in 2021 with 71.2 teachers with fewer than 10 absences. In 2020 that number was 83.3-percent and in 2019 it was 83.8-percent.

Teacher retention did improve from 85.2-percent to 90.7-percent between 2020 and 2021.

Academic data is not provided for Middletown Prairie Elementary, but it is for Lincoln Trail, MSJHS and MSHS. 

The Illinois Report Card reports that 33-percent of students at Lincoln Trail are proficient in English, 38-percent in Math and 65-percent in science. At Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School, 38-percent of students are proficient in English, 44-percent in math and 71-percent in science. Eighth-grade students passing Algebra I is below the state average. MSJHS has 27.6-percent passing while the state average is 29.9-percent. 

At Mahomet-Seymour High School 49-percent of students are proficient in English, 54-percent in math and 59-percent in science. Ninety-percent of 9th grade students are on track for graduation and 18-percent of graduates need remediation in community college.