Coal City High School students Avery Housman, Nettie Connor, Gabrielle VanDuyne, and Alivia Waliczek have been chosen by their classmates to represent Coal City and nearby communities of Diamond, Carbon Hill, and Goose Lake at the 76th Annual Grundy County Corn Festival. The students will take part in the festival's parade and queen coronation ceremony.
The queen coronation is scheduled for Wednesday, September 24 at 5:30 p.m. in downtown Morris. The four candidates will also appear in the Corn Festival parade on Sunday, September 28 at 2 p.m. Both the Coal City High School and Middle School marching bands are set to participate in the parade as well. The festival runs from September 24 through September 28 in Morris.
Coal City Community Unit School District 1 covers parts of Grundy and Will counties and includes several schools: Coal City Early Childhood Center, Coal City Elementary School, Coal City Intermediate School, Coal City Middle School, and Coal City High School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). According to state education data, the district employs 153 teachers with an average salary of $69,297; about 78 percent are women and roughly 22 percent are men. No teachers have reported more than ten absences during a school year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
Demographic information shows that the student population is approximately 87 percent White, with smaller percentages identifying as Hispanic (9.6 percent), Black (0.6 percent), or Asian (0.6 percent) (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In fiscal year 2020, the district spent $21,619 per student for a total expenditure of over $47 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
The annual Grundy County Corn Festival remains a longstanding event for area communities to celebrate local traditions and student involvement.
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