Unity West

1035 County Road 600 North

School District

Tolono Community Unit 7
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:11
Type

public

School Map for Tolono Community Unit School District 7

GreatSchools Rating

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Reviews

Submitted by other on December 02, 2024

Our experience with this elementary school district has been deeply disheartening, particularly as a diverse family navigating a system that fails to meet the developmental needs of all its students. We’ve faced bias, exclusion, and dismissiveness, reflecting broader systemic issues that harm many families. These concerns are especially critical at the elementary level, where children develop their sense of self, social skills, and understanding of the world. A significant issue is the favoritism toward students with athletic talent, particularly in football and baseball. These students receive preferential access to resources and extracurricular activities, while others—especially those with different interests—are left behind. For young children, this inequity is damaging and creates an environment where those who don’t fit the athletic or social mold feel marginalized. The district's overwhelming focus on football and baseball also neglects students interested in academics, arts, and other activities like chess, art, acting, storytelling, and writing. These pursuits are either underfunded or not offered at all.Similarly, sports like soccer, tennis, swimming, and cheerleading—especially for young women—are overlooked. This lack of diversity in opportunities stifles the growth of many students and sends a harmful message about which talents are valued. It also leaves young men, especially those not interested in football or baseball, with few options to explore their interests and skills. Even more concerning is how the district treats students with learning disabilities, neurodivergence, or medical needs. These students are often dismissed, with their needs minimized or ignored. Many face bullying—not just from peers but from staff, which harms their self-esteem and development. Early intervention is crucial, yet these students are left unsupported and at risk of falling behind. The district also fails to address the social and emotional needs of students. Emotional intelligence, empathy, and social skills are vital at this stage, but the district lacks the tools to teach these skills effectively. This leaves students ill-prepared to navigate emotions, form healthy relationships, or resolve conflicts.
Submitted by parent on January 11, 2024

Not a good school district and not a good school either. Everyone is related to someone somehow in the school. They incentivize this and it makes it hard to keep a neutral opinion doesn’t happen at all. Students who are bullied are bullied by the school staff as well anytime they attempt to speak up for themselves, it doesn’t matter if it’s respectful and kind and just within their personal space. Teachers constantly punishing the students who are bullied because they aren’t the kids of the school staff or the favorites. Any parent who has ever attempted to bring up a concern at all gets bullied, shunned, limited access to school information, and so much worse. My child comes home daily crying due to the bullying. It has become relentless worse daily of bullying. To the point my child is self isolating and fears being around other children and adults due to criticism. They tell me about the many times they’re bullied about things they look and act by students and the teacher allows it, even after they asks the teacher to tell them to stop. A student kicked my student multiple times across under their desks and my child asked multiple times for the student to stop and even asked the teacher to tell the to stop, nothing happened. Then my child pushed the student’s feet back since they were ignored and my child was punished in front of the bully and the entire class by two teachers. My child came home hysterical and asked why their teacher hated them. My child has been having emotional and mental challenges due to the school staff since the start at this school district years ago. I had never planned to move and thought I had bought my forever home. But now have found the move will absolutely be worth my child’s wellbeing.
Submitted by parent on January 06, 2024

There’s little communication from school staff and nearly no communication from administrators or school board. The school board are like ghosts. The SPED Coordinator doesn’t want the students to have their needs met and will push back any chance she gets. The school support staff for services rush their students through the IEP goals long before they are ready. My child had an SLP that was really helpful of my child initially for their first year then suddenly there was a change then a rush to get them to rush through their goals and they are not meeting them yet the SLP is documenting that my child is meeting them. I have many recordings with friends and family that show that the accuracy is not even 40% let alone the 80% the SLP is stating. Then my child’s outside SLP, who has worked in a school district, has reviewed the goals states that my child is not meeting the goals like the school SLP is stating. The school doesn’t not want to help students who need help they want easy and student who can just get information by osmosis. Read on their own, don’t ask questions when learning, that score high on tests as that is what all reviews look at for how the students do is state testing. Unfortunately that’s not how society works and these children will be sadly mistake when they find out they need to think for themselves and work out problems for themselves and people are just pushing them through. May be why so many are not as successful outside of school. There are a large number of parents and grandparents who have to pay their adult children bills in this community and it is likely do to this focus way too much attention on testing, perfectionism, and not actually helping the children learn.