Graham Mesa Elementary School

Graham Mesa Elementary School is a moderately sized K-5 school in RIFLE, Colorado, operated by Garfield School District No. Re-2. The school instructs 424 students in grades pre-K through 5.

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

In terms of who attends, Graham Mesa Elementary School records that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 59% of enrollment; the rest consists of 40% White. By comparison, Garfield County as a whole is about 33% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Graham Mesa Elementary School has 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.3:1. The state averages around 16.6:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 47% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, Graham Mesa Elementary School is in the bottom 10% of Colorado public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 38.4%; Graham Mesa Elementary School posts 25.1%, -13.3 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Garfield County indicate the typical household earns roughly $91,131 per year, about 34% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Garfield County runs 29 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,790 students), of which Graham Mesa Elementary School is one.

Highland Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around Graham Mesa Elementary School. On composite proficiency, Graham Mesa Elementary School comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 24.6%.

The campus sits in an outlying setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Graham Mesa Elementary School's enrollment has edged up 21% since 2018, when it stood at 349 (now 424). The Hispanic share of enrollment rose from 38% to 59% over that span. Class-load math has grew: from 16.4:1 in 2018 to 19.3:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Graham Mesa Elementary School community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.