Elk Creek Elementary

Elk Creek Elementary operates as a tight-knit K-5 school in NEW CASTLE, Colorado, part of Garfield School District No. Re-2. Current enrollment sits at 272 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Colorado's public schools average about 379 students each, so Elk Creek Elementary sits 28% leaner than that benchmark.

Garfield School District No. Re-2 runs 10 schools in total, collectively educating 4,695 students. Elk Creek Elementary is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Elk Creek Elementary reports that 50% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school records 47% White, 2% multiracial. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 33%.

On the resource side, On paper, Elk Creek Elementary has 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 16.6:1 average. Around 46% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Elk Creek Elementary is in the bottom 10% of Colorado public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 38.9%; Elk Creek Elementary posts 23.2%, -15.7 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Garfield County) shows that median household income runs about $91,131, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Garfield County's 29 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,790 students), Elk Creek Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Kathryn Senor Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Elk Creek Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 29.8%.

The campus sits in a rural setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 9%: 249 students in 2018 compared to 272 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 54% to 47% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 19.1:1 in 2018 to 14.1:1 today.

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