Kirby School District 140 students earned several individual and team awards at the annual South Cook Math Bowl, held April 30 and May 1 at Prairie State College, according to a May 4 announcement from the district.
The event brought together more than 300 math students from 23 school districts across the south and southwest suburbs. Students competed in both individual and team events designed to challenge their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
District officials said that KSD 140 was represented by students who achieved top math test scores for their grade levels. Coaches Nicole Collins, Lacie Lucca, Renee O’Keeffe, Kate Robinson, and Nicole Shields led the teams. Individual winners included Connor M. (6th place, third grade), Ronan L. (MVP, fourth grade), Landon H. (3rd place, fifth grade), Dylan T. (1st place, fifth grade), David D. (2nd place, sixth grade), Tommy F. (5th place, seventh grade), Zach M. (2nd place, seventh grade) and Emmett W., who won first place as well as MVP for eighth grade.
The district’s third/fourth-grade team—Khalil A., Connor M., Ronan L., Ethan G.—placed fifth overall in the team competition.
Kirby School District 140 represents several schools in Cook County including Christa McAuliffe School, Fernway Park Elementary School, Helen Keller Elementary School, John A. Bannes Elementary School, Millennium Elementary School, Prairie View Middle School and Virgil I. Grissom Middle School according to Illinois Report Card. The district enrolled 3,606 students during the 2019-2020 school year and serves grades pre-kindergarten through eighth according to Illinois Report Card.
Illinois State Board of Education data shows Kirby has a teaching staff of 258 with an average salary of $68,179 before pension contributions; most teachers are women with no one recording more than ten absences per year according to Illinois Report Card. The student population is primarily White at nearly eighty percent; Black students make up just over three percent; Hispanic eight percent; Asian four percent according to Illinois Report Card.
Financially for fiscal year 2020 Kirby spent $20,628 per student for a total expenditure of over seventy-four million dollars according to Illinois Report Card. Chronic truancy remains low: only eighteen students were classified as chronically truant—just half a percent compared with a statewide average near ten percent according to Illinois Report Card.
