Lake County Gazette

As the 2025-2026 academic year continues, Mrs. Peterson has welcomed students to the Coal City High School library, which features flexible and modular workspaces. These areas are designed for individual use, group activities, or full-class sessions. Student Council members have been using the library during CCT, with Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Vucsko, and StuCo working together at the start of the school year to plan and carry out Homecoming 2025.

Freshmen English classes have also visited the library for an introduction to its services as they begin to take more responsibility for their learning needs. Students participated in a tour followed by a scavenger hunt that tested their knowledge of the library’s resources. Winning teams received candy as a reward.

Mrs. Hayse’s freshmen English classes visit every few weeks to check out books and use the library space. They receive book recommendations and continue learning how to navigate the collection. Recently, these classes took part in an “Escape the Haunted House” activity in small groups, with winners receiving candy bars.

The library staff is working to diversify its collection by adding works from minority and LGBTQ+ authors as well as expanding non-mainstream formats such as graphic novels, anime, and manga publications. The manga and anime section has been reorganized into bins for easier browsing of larger series. The graphic novel section continues to grow and now uses bins for larger series as well.

Plans are underway to further improve shelving arrangements so that larger fiction series can also be housed in bins for easier access.

“The CCHS library is always working to meet the needs of our students and staff however they need us,” said Mrs. Peterson.

Coal City Community Unit School District 1 serves Grundy and Will counties through several schools including Coal City Early Childhood Center, Coal City Elementary School, Coal City High School, Coal City Intermediate School, and Coal City Middle School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). According to state data, there are 153 teachers in the district earning an average salary of $69,297; about 78 percent are women while about 22 percent are men (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). No teachers in this district have more than ten absences per school year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).

Demographically, about 87 percent of students in Coal City Community Unit School District 1 identify as White; nearly 10 percent identify as Hispanic; less than one percent each identify as Black or Asian (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In 2020, spending per student was $21,619 with total expenditures reaching $47 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).