NW Illinois News

Round Grove Road will be closed at the Union Pacific railroad crossing, located four miles east of Morrison, on Wednesday, October 22, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The closure is necessary for the railroad to raise the south track through the crossing and conduct minor approach work. A detour will be in place, and the road is expected to reopen on Friday, October 24.

Whiteside County schools, which are located in the area, had an average student-to-teacher ratio of 14-to-1 during the 2022-23 school year, with 8,210 students and 610 full-time faculty members. More information about these statistics can be found at the Illinois State Board of Education website: https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx.

The county's schools also recorded a teacher absenteeism rate of 36.5% in the same school year, which is slightly higher than the state average of 35.6%. Details on absenteeism rates are available at https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx.

Sterling High School, one of the 26 schools in Whiteside County, had the highest enrollment numbers for white, multiracial, Hispanic, and Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with 526 white students, 63 multiracial students, 373 Hispanic students, and 23 Black students respectively. These enrollment figures are published by the Illinois State Board of Education at https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx.

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