The District 56 Middle School Concert Choir, made up of seventh and eighth graders, earned a Division 1 rating at the Illinois Grade School Association District Contest, according to a March 17 announcement. This achievement qualifies the choir for the state contest later in the spring.
The recognition highlights student accomplishments within Gurnee School District 56, which serves Lake County and includes Prairie Trail School, River Trail School, Spaulding Elementary School, and Viking School, as reported by the Illinois Report Card according to the Illinois Report Card.
Gurnee School District 56 is an elementary school district serving grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district enrolled 1,966 students during the 2019-2020 school year and spent $21,128 per student in that period, totaling $41,537,628 according to the Illinois Report Card. The district’s teaching staff consists of 153 teachers with an average salary of $63,616 before pension contributions; women make up 86.3 percent of teachers while men account for 13.7 percent. There were no teachers with more than ten absences in a school year according to the Illinois Report Card.
Demographically, Gurnee School District 56 is composed of approximately 21.7 percent White students, 21 percent Black students, 45 percent Hispanic students, and six percent Asian students according to the Illinois Report Card. In terms of attendance challenges, there were 132 chronically truant students enrolled in the district during the 2020 school year—a rate of about 6.7 percent—compared to a statewide average of nine point six percent according to the Illinois Report Card.
The choir’s success at this recent contest brings positive attention to both its members and their schools as they prepare for participation at the state level.
