East Elementary welcomed students and their families for its annual Explorers Night on April 18. The event offered an opportunity for attendees to connect with staff and explore the school community together.
Explorers Night is a key occasion for fostering relationships between families, students, and school staff. Such events aim to strengthen the sense of community within East Elementary and support student engagement.
East Elementary is part of Zion Elementary School District 6, which serves Lake County and includes Beulah Park Elementary School, Elmwood Elementary School, Lakeview School, Shiloh Park Elementary School, West Elementary School, and Zion Central Middle School according to the Illinois Report Card. The district enrolled 2,483 students in the 2019-2020 school year and provides education from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade according to the Illinois Report Card.
The district employs a total of 164 teachers who earn an average salary of $58,629 before pension contributions; about 83 percent are women while nearly 17 percent are men. No teacher in the district had more than ten absences during a school year according to the Illinois Report Card.
Zion Elementary School District 6 has a diverse student body: approximately five percent are White, nearly thirty-seven percent are Black, just over fifty percent are Hispanic, and less than one percent are Asian according to the Illinois Report Card. In terms of financial investment in education, spending per student was $27,927 in 2020 with total expenditures reaching over $69 million according to the Illinois Report Card.
During that same period there were 179 chronically truant students in Zion District schools—a rate of about seven percent—while statewide chronic truancy averaged almost ten percent; some districts report much higher rates according to data from ISBE.
Events like Explorers Night reflect ongoing efforts by East Elementary and its district partners to encourage involvement among all members of their diverse educational community.
