The Illinois State Board of Education has upgraded Limestone’s overall rating to “commendable” in the district’s 2024-2025 School Report Card. The report card evaluates the district on numerous statistics. Limestone made many gains last year compared to the 2023-2024 school year.
Graduation statistics improved. The percentage of freshmen students who are on track to graduate increased from 80% to 91.4%. The dropout rate decreased by 4.5 percentage points, from 6.2% to 1.7%. The graduation rate improved by 3 percent.
The year saw a decrease in acts of violence. During the 2023-2024 school year, there were 83 incidents of physical violence. Last school year, that number decreased to 12. An incident of physical violence counts the number of parties involved in the violence and is not the number of events, like fights.
Attendance also made gains. The chronically truant (students who miss more than 10 days without parent contact) numbers saw a 4.4 percentage point decrease from 28% to 23%. Chronic absenteeism (students who miss over 10 days of school) numbers also decreased from 43% to 32%. Additionally, the number of teachers with over 10 absences improved by nearly 10%. The new attendance incentive policy, which went into effect this fall, has made Superintendent Keith Brown very hopeful that students will continue to put in more effort and to attend school so they do not have to be present for their final exams.
Brown says, “I think we need to continue to tell the message of how great a school this is. I really believe Limestone is a fantastic place to get a great education. And so part of this, celebrating our accomplishments, is also telling the broader community that we’re doing great things here.”
