Payne Elementary School

Payne Elementary School is one of the rural-scale elementary-level communitys in Selma, Alabama, overseen by Selma City, with 164 students on its rolls from grades K through 6. Compared to the state average of about 480 students per school, that is 66% below typical.

Payne Elementary School is one of 8 schools operated by Selma City, a district that hosts 2,301 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Payne Elementary School reports that 99% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority. That is considerably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 70%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.4:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. About 96% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Dallas County runs at roughly 85%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Payne Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 14.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 29.0%.

In the area at large, Dallas County reports that median household earnings sit near $35,627, about 18% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 26%. Payne Elementary School is one of 23 public schools in Dallas County (combined enrollment of about 4,584 students).

Selma High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Payne Elementary School comes 8th of 8 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 37.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Looking at the recent track record. Payne Elementary School's enrollment has contracted 28% since 2018, when it stood at 228 (now 164). The student-to-teacher ratio loosened from 14.7:1 in 2018 to 16.4:1 today.

On this page, members of the Payne Elementary School community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.