Lick Creek Elem School, Buncombe IL

Original Research by School Decision on Lick Creek Elem School

Lick Creek Elementary School is a small PreK through eighth-grade public school serving Buncombe, a rural village in Union County in southern Illinois. The school is the hub of the Lick Creek CCSD 16 district, which serves only this single building and the Buncombe community.

The enrollment is small, with just under one hundred thirty students across the full PreK-8 span. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of multiracial and Black students and very few Hispanic students represented in the school. No data was available on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, students with individualized education plans, or English learners, so a full economic and special-population profile cannot be drawn from the available sources.

On state assessments given in 2024-25, the school shows uneven academic performance across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, third grade proficiency is at a moderate level, while seventh and eighth grades show stronger results. In mathematics, the school reports notably lower proficiency, with third grade at a moderate level and sixth and eighth grades below that; seventh grade mathematics is stronger. Science results are available only for eighth grade, where proficiency falls in a middle range. Test data for grades four and five were not reported. The school reports full participation in testing where results appear, which suggests no attendance barriers during assessment windows.

Compared to the other public school districts in Union County, Lick Creek's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile among that county cohort. This positioning reflects relatively stronger performance relative to immediate neighbors, though the grade-level pattern shows inconsistency. Reading proficiency, especially in the upper grades, is notably stronger than mathematics proficiency across the school.

Buncombe itself is an extremely small, rural agricultural community with no meaningful growth trajectory. The village has only a handful of hundred residents, with employment concentrated in health care, retail, and other service work. Most residents commute to nearby towns for work. Housing in the 62912 zip code is modestly valued and remains affordable relative to national benchmarks. The school building sits on Main Street within the village; there is no separate campus, and no public library or transit service within the village itself. The nearest county services and larger employment centers are in Vienna, about eight miles away.

The district has not reported recent changes or strategic initiatives that would signal a shift in priorities. For families in Buncombe, Lick Creek serves as the only local K-8 public school option. The school's strength in reading and middle-school performance in language arts contrasts with a softness in elementary and middle-school mathematics. A parent may want to look into further with the school what instructional support is available to address that mathematics gap, especially in grades six and eight.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 25%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▲ 5 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 790%

School 90% · District 90%

▲ 39 pts above state median

Grade 873%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 19 pts above state median

Science

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 15 pts above state median

This schoolLick Creek CCSD 16, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income0%Higher-income0%0 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income30%0 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income30%3 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income10%Higher-income30%20 pp gap