Cherokee Elementary School

Cherokee Elementary School is one of the small elementary-level communitys in Cherokee, Alabama, part of Colbert County, with 226 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 6. That puts it 53% smaller than the typical public school in Alabama, which averages around 480 students.

Cherokee Elementary School is one of 8 schools operated by Colbert County, a district that enrolls 2,573 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Cherokee Elementary School reports that the student body is overwhelmingly White (83%). The remainder reads as 7% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 4% Black.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.2:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.0:1 average. An estimated 66% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Colbert County runs at roughly 50%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Cherokee Elementary School ranks in the top 10% of Alabama public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 36.1%; Cherokee Elementary School posts 58.2%, +22.2 points above that line.

In the broader community, Colbert County reports that the typical household earns roughly $60,628 per year, 22% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 14%. Across Colbert County's 25 public schools (combined enrollment of about 8,178 students), Cherokee Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Cherokee High School, around 0.3 miles off. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Cherokee Elementary School at 1st of 7; the average score across the group is 35.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a rural area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Cherokee Elementary School has shrank 32%, going from 334 students in 2018 to 226 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment fell from 9% to 4% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 16.7:1 in 2018 to 15.2:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Cherokee Elementary School typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.