D A Smith Middle School

Set in Ozark, Alabama, D A Smith Middle School is a cozy middle-grades school, one of the schools within Ozark City. It enrolls 388 students across grades 6 through 8. That puts it 24% below the typical public school in Alabama, which averages around 508 students.

Ozark City runs 4 schools in total, collectively educating 1,905 students. D A Smith Middle School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, D A Smith Middle School lists that 55% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder comes out to 30% White, 7% Hispanic, 6% multiracial. By comparison, Dale County as a whole is about 20% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, D A Smith Middle School shows 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 14.4:1. The state averages around 17.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

With demographic context factored in, D A Smith Middle School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 33.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 31.4%.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Dale County put median household earnings sit near $54,963, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 15% of residents live below the federal poverty line. D A Smith Middle School is one of 18 public schools in Dale County (combined enrollment of about 6,437 students).

Harry N Mixon Intermediate School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 3 other public schools cluster around D A Smith Middle School. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), D A Smith Middle School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 38.8%.

The school occupies a town-based site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at D A Smith Middle School has declined 15%, going from 458 students in 2018 to 388 in 2025. The White share of enrollment edged down from 42% to 30% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.8:1 in 2018 to 14.4:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.