Original Research by School Decision on Ste Marie Elem School
Ste. Marie Elementary School serves prekindergarten and kindergarten students in a very small rural village in southeastern Jasper County along the Embarras River. The school sits at Franklin Street in the center of Sainte Marie, within walking distance of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church and a handful of family businesses—a meat processor, welding and manufacturing shops, grain operations, and a tavern. The village itself is sparse, a few hundred people spread across owner-occupied single-family homes with no public transit; the nearest city of any size is Terre Haute, Indiana, about fifty miles away. The community has stable roots dating to French-Catholic settlement but has experienced a very slow population decline over decades.
The school enrollment is small, with students split between prekindergarten and kindergarten. The student body is predominantly white, with a handful of students from other backgrounds represented. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, English learner status, and special education enrollments were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the extent of these populations and what supports are in place. No state testing data is reported for this school, which reflects that the prekindergarten and kindergarten grades served are not tested under Illinois state assessment systems.
A parent considering enrollment should know that significant change is coming. In November 2025, the Jasper County school board voted unanimously to consolidate the prekindergarten and kindergarten programs currently at Ste. Marie Elementary onto the Newton Elementary campus. The district approved a sizable building addition at Newton Elementary, with construction beginning in spring 2026 and the transition scheduled for the 2027-2028 school year. This means that students now entering Ste. Marie's program will move to Newton Elementary for kindergarten and the following years; it is a lasting restructuring of where the district's youngest students attend school.
The district is funding this expansion without a bond referendum or property tax increase, using reserves and state energy transition grants tied to the scheduled 2027 closure of the Newton Power Plant. This financing approach reflects the district's measured approach to the consolidation and suggests stability behind the plan, but it is a change that families weighing a move to the Sainte Marie area should factor into their thinking about the school's role in the community going forward.
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