Prairieview-Ogden receives “Exemplary” status on Illinois Report Card

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@sjodaily.com

For the second year in a row, the Prairieview-Ogden School District has been recognized as one of the best in the state by the Illinois State Board of Education, which produces the Illinois Report Card. 

Recognized as an “Exemplary School, Prairieview-Ogden joins nearly 11-percent of all schools in the state that receive the top ranking. 

Prairieview-Ogden Junior High School received the “Exemplary” status while Prairieview-Ogden South Elementary received a “Commendable” designation. Prairieview-Ogden North Elementary did not receive a designation.

With 280 students district-wide, enrollment in the Prairieview-Ogden School District is growing. 

From 2015 to 16, enrollment increased by two students, then held steady in 2017 before gaining another 33 students in 2018. Between 2018 and 2019, the district gained two students.  

Grades 2 has seen an increase of 18 students since 2017 while grades 3 and 6 have also seen increases of 7 and 6 students, respectively. 

The district has 22-percent low-income students, which is near typical. 

The report shows that chronic absenteeism, meaning students who miss 10-percent or more of school with or without a valid excuse, remained the same over the last two years at 3-percent.

Chronic truism rates, 5-percent or more of school days per year without a valid excuse, is also steady at  0-1-percent over 5 years.

The district spends roughly $9,900 per student enrolled. According to ISBE’s report, the district spends $10,557 per student at Prairieview-Ogden Jr. High School, $8,891 per student at Prairieview-Ogden North Elementary and $10,532 at Prairieview-Ogden South Elementary.

The Prairieview-Ogden School District was designated at a Tier 3 school for Evidence-Based Funding in 2019. At $2,570,278 Evidence-Based Funding Resources, they are at 96-percent capacity to meet the $2,674,688 Adequacy Target. 

Average class size throughout the PV-O District has been below the state average since 2015. With the state average holding steady at 21-23 students per class, overall, Prairieview-Ogden classrooms fluctuate between 15 and 17 students per class.

The PV-O School District, which has a total of 20 teachers has a student to teacher ratio of 15.1 at the elementary level. The state average is 18.1 at the elementary level.

The teacher retention rate, the 3-year average percentage of teachers returning to work at Prairiview-Ogden hit an all-time high of 90-percent in 2019. 

On average, teachers within the PV-O school district see a lower salary than their state-wide counterparts. This has held true at least since 2015.

Currently, on average, PV-O teachers are paid $46,978 per year. The state average is $67,049.

The percentage of teachers who are absent more than 10 days per year rose in 2019. In 2018, 90-percent of teachers had fewer than 10 absences within the school year, but in 2019, 86-percent of teachers missed fewer than 10 days. 

In 2018 and 2019, 100-percent of PV-O teachers have received Excellent or Proficient designations on their evaluations.

The Prairieview-OgdenSchool District ranks above the state average of administration to student ratio. The state average of admins to students was 173:1 in 2019, but PV-O’s ratio was 129:1.

Average administrator pay was above the state average. In 2019, PV-O administrators made an average of $117,555 whereas the state administrators made an average of $109,592.