Rice Elementary School

Rice Elementary School is an average-sized elementary campus in WELLINGTON, Colorado, one of the schools within Poudre School District R-1. The school enrolls 401 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Poudre School District R-1 runs 52 schools in total, collectively educating 29,381 students. Rice Elementary School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Rice Elementary School reports that White students make up the majority at 70%. Beyond that, the school shows 24% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 82% White, putting the school's mix noticeably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 28 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. An estimated 32% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

After controlling for student poverty, Rice Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 47.5%, the actual is 44.5%, a residual of -3.0 points.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Larimer County put median household income runs about $93,765, 53% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Across Larimer County's 94 public schools (combined enrollment of about 47,159 students), Rice Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Wellington Middle-High School, roughly 1.5 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around Rice Elementary School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Rice Elementary School at 3rd of 8; the average score across the group is 42.0%.

Rice Elementary School operates from a town-center location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Rice Elementary School has fell 21%, going from 506 students in 2018 to 401 in 2025. The White share of enrollment ticked down from 88% to 70% over that span. Class-load math has pulled in: from 16.9:1 in 2018 to 14.4:1 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.