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Gillespie, Illinois - 3 schools
An equity score of 46/100 ranks Gillespie Cusd 7 #197 of 763 districts in Illinois (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,112 per pupil, Gillespie Cusd 7 ranks #588 of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending (Illinois districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,140
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$14,112
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Gillespie Cusd 7 operates 3 public schools serving 1,140 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Illinois. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Macoupin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,112 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending. See how Illinois compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 22.1% local, 62.2% state, and 15.7% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 46/100, ranked #197 of 763 in Illinois against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 3 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 555.7:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 31.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.5% White, 1.5% African American, 0.8% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Gillespie Middle School, with a diversity index of 11.7/100.
Its largest campus is Ben-Gil Elementary School, enrolling 523 students (48% of the district's total enrollment).
Ben-Gil Elementary School accounts for 45.9% of all Gillespie Cusd 7 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Gillespie Cusd 7 a distant remainder — means Gillespie Cusd 7-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Gillespie Cusd 7 school enrollment varies 2.1× across entities
Gillespie Cusd 7 school enrollment ranges from 244 students (lowest) to 523 students (highest), a spread of 279 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Gillespie Cusd 7 student-counselor ratio is 556:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Gillespie Cusd 7 chronic absenteeism rate is 31.5% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.