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As the 2025-2026 school year continues, Mrs. Peterson is welcoming students to the Coal City High School library, which features flexible and modular workspaces. These spaces are available for individual use, group work, or entire classes. The Student Council has already used the library during CCT periods to prepare and carry out Homecoming 2025 activities with support from Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Vucsko, and StuCo members.
Freshmen English classes have visited the library for an introduction to its services as they start to become more independent in their studies. Students toured the facility and participated in a scavenger hunt designed to familiarize them with library resources; winning teams received candy as prizes.
Mrs. Hayse’s freshmen English classes visit every few weeks to check out books and make use of the space, receiving reading recommendations and learning how to navigate the library. Recently, these classes participated in an “Escape the Haunted House” activity in small groups, with winners receiving candy bars.
The library staff reports ongoing efforts to diversify its collection by including works from minority and LGBTQ+ authors as well as expanding non-mainstream formats like graphic novels, anime, and manga. Manga and anime have been moved into their own section using bins for easier browsing of larger series; similar changes have been made for graphic novels.
Plans are underway to implement dynamic shelving throughout more sections of fiction using bins for large series so that browsing is easier for students.
According to Mrs. Peterson: “With the ability to change and adapt as necessary, the CCHS library is always working to meet the needs of our students and staff however they need us.”
Coal City High School is part of Coal City Community Unit School District 1, which serves Grundy and Will counties through several schools including Coal City Early Childhood Center, Elementary School, Intermediate School, Middle School, and High School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
The district employs 153 teachers who earn an average salary of $69,297 before pension contributions; about 78 percent are women while just over 22 percent are men (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). There are no teachers in this district with more than ten absences per school year.
Demographically, approximately 87 percent of students identify as White; nearly ten percent identify as Hispanic; less than one percent each identify as Black or Asian (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
In fiscal year 2020, Coal City Community Unit School District 1 spent $21,619 per student with total expenditures reaching $47 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
