South Elementary School

South Elementary School is an elementary-level community of reasonably sized scale in BRIGHTON, Colorado, run under School District 27J, enrolling 337 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Within School District 27J, which oversees 33 schools and 24,044 students, South Elementary School is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, South Elementary School logs that nearly all students (87%) are Hispanic. The remainder comes out to 10% White. The wider county runs roughly 43% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 14.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 16.6:1 average. About 85% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Adams County (around 62%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, South Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 14.9%, the actual is 17.6%, a residual of +2.7 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Adams County put median household earnings sit near $94,571, 29% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Adams County runs 171 public schools (combined enrollment of about 87,938 students), of which South Elementary School is one.

The closest other public school is Brighton High School, roughly 0.3 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, South Elementary School comes 2nd of 6 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 15.7%.

South Elementary School operates from a residential location.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at South Elementary School has shrank 30%, going from 483 students in 2018 to 337 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 76% to 87% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 16.9:1 in 2018 to 14.7:1 today.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.