Girard Elementary School

As a small primary school in Dothan, Alabama, Girard Elementary School instructs 380 students from grades K through 5, run under Dothan City. By comparison, Alabama's public schools average about 480 students each, so Girard Elementary School sits 21% below that benchmark.

Dothan City comprises 16 schools with combined enrollment of 8,220 students; Girard Elementary School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Girard Elementary School shows that Black students make up the majority at 76%; the rest looks like 13% White, 6% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 27%.

On the resource side, Girard Elementary School records 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 89% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Houston County (around 63%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Girard Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 19.0%, the actual is 14.8%, a residual of -4.2 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Houston County indicate median household earnings sit near $58,626, about 23% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. In all, Houston County runs 35 public schools (combined enrollment of about 15,127 students), of which Girard Elementary School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Dothan 6th Grade Center, around 0.1 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Girard Elementary School at 6th of 6; the average score across the group is 35.5%.

The school occupies a high-density site.

Over the past 7-year window. Girard Elementary School's enrollment has climbed 39% since 2018, when it stood at 274 (now 380). The White share of enrollment shrank from 20% to 13% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 18.3:1 in 2018 to 16.5:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Girard Elementary School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.