Swanson Elementary

Set in Palmer, Alaska, Swanson Elementary is a reasonably sized elementary campus, part of Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. It works with 348 students across grades pre-K through 2. Enrollment runs roughly 26% bigger than the state mean of about 277.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District runs 49 schools in total, collectively educating 19,495 students. Swanson Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Swanson Elementary records that the largest single group is White, at 62% of enrollment. Other groups include 18% multiracial, 9% Hispanic, 8% Native American. By comparison, Matanuska-Susitna Borough as a whole is about 77% White, so the school skews considerably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Swanson Elementary has 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.3:1 average. About 48% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

In the area at large, Matanuska-Susitna Borough reports that the typical household earns roughly $94,031 per year, roughly 24% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Matanuska-Susitna Borough runs 49 public schools (combined enrollment of about 19,495 students), of which Swanson Elementary is one.

Sherrod Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 29%: 488 students in 2018 compared to 348 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 1% to 9% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 18.4:1 in 2018 to 13.4:1 in 2025.

On this page, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.