Highline Community Elementary School

Highline Community Elementary School, an average-sized elementary school in AURORA, Colorado, one of the schools within Cherry Creek School District No. 5 in the county of Arapah, works with 435 students, covering grades pre-K through 5.

Cherry Creek School District No. 5 in the county of Arapah comprises 70 schools with combined enrollment of 52,099 students; Highline Community Elementary School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Highline Community Elementary School records that Hispanic students make up the majority at 62%. Other groups include 14% Black, 9% multiracial, 9% White, 5% Asian. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.3:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 16.6:1, putting Highline Community Elementary School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 69% of students at Highline Community Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is above Arapahoe County's rate of about 50%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Highline Community Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 24.9%, the actual is 14.3%, a residual of -10.6 points.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Arapahoe County indicate median household earnings sit near $101,087, about 47% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. In all, Arapahoe County runs 176 public schools (combined enrollment of about 115,502 students), of which Highline Community Elementary School is one.

The closest other public school is Lotus School for Excellence, roughly 0.7 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Highline Community Elementary School comes 7th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 29.0%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Highline Community Elementary School's enrollment has declined 19% since 2018, when it stood at 540 (now 435). The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 56% to 62% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 14.8:1 in 2018 to 13.3:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Highline Community Elementary School community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.