L E Willson Elementary School

L E Willson Elementary School operates as a compact K-5 school in Sheffield, Alabama, part of Sheffield City. Current enrollment sits at 253 students spanning grades 3 through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 47% leaner than the state mean of about 480.

L E Willson Elementary School is one of 4 schools operated by Sheffield City, a district that serves 1,029 students overall.

Looking at the student body, L E Willson Elementary School shows that the most-represented group is White (46%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder looks like 34% Black, 12% multiracial, 8% Hispanic. By comparison, Colbert County as a whole is about 77% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, L E Willson Elementary School has 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.5:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.0:1 average. Roughly 78% of students at L E Willson Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Colbert County runs at roughly 50%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), L E Willson Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 27.1%, the actual is 33.0%, a residual of +5.9 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Colbert County put the typical household earns roughly $60,628 per year, roughly 22% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 14%. L E Willson Elementary School is one of 25 public schools in Colbert County (combined enrollment of about 8,178 students).

The closest other public school is Sheffield Junior High School, roughly 0.3 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around L E Willson Elementary School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts L E Willson Elementary School at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 36.6%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 22%: 326 students in 2018 compared to 253 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 53% to 46% across the same window.

On this page, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.