McElwain Elementary School

McElwain Elementary School operates as a reasonably sized elementary school in THORNTON, Colorado, one of the schools within Adams 12 Five Star Schools. Current enrollment sits at 361 students spanning grades K through 5.

Across the 54 schools in Adams 12 Five Star Schools (34,466 students total), McElwain Elementary School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, McElwain Elementary School logs that 51% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 31% Asian, 13% White, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Adams County as a whole is about 43% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.4:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 16.6:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 90% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Adams County runs at roughly 62%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), McElwain Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 12.1%, the actual is 9.8%, a residual of -2.3 points.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Adams County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $94,571 per year, 29% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. McElwain Elementary School is one of 171 public schools in Adams County (combined enrollment of about 87,938 students).

The closest other public school is Coronado Hills Elementary School, roughly 0.3 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), McElwain Elementary School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 17.6%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at McElwain Elementary School has decreased 21%, going from 457 students in 2018 to 361 in 2025. Over the same period, the Asian share expanded from 2% to 31%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.4:1 in 2018 to 14.4:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the feed for McElwain Elementary School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.