Wilmington Middle School reports 11 incidents of students being suspended in 2023-24 school year

Wilmington Middle School reported 11 suspensions during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 11 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 4.2 incidents per 100 of the school's enrolled students.

The school reported that all in-school suspension was given for incident involving tobacco. Additionally, one case was classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were seven disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another four incidents involved female students.

All 11 suspensions issued in the Wilmington Middle School schools involved elementary or middle school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with five cases reported. Additionally, one case was classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, which made up 85.9% of the Wilmington Middle School student body, were suspended the most in the school, with 10 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 9.5% of the student body, and received one suspension.

Wilmington Middle School is located in the Wilmington Community Unit School District 209U, and has a main office in Wilmington.

Illinois allocated $8.6 billion to K-12 education in its 2025 budget—a $350 million increase over FY 2024, meeting the minimum required under the state’s school funding formula.

In 2024, Illinois registered a teacher retention rate of almost 90%. Yet, around 91% of superintendents reported having a 'serious' problem teacher shortage problem. In total, almost 4,100 teaching positions remained vacant by the end of the year.

“They’re putting a substitute in there, that’s somebody with a four-year degree that’s not in teaching. They’re using a retired teacher…or worse than that, they’re canceling the class, putting the kids in other classrooms, putting them in study hall, but those are strategies we have to use if there’s no qualified teacher,” said Beth Crider, regional superintendent of Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48.