JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL

Set in LAKE WALES, Florida, JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL is a tight-knit elementary-level community, one of the schools within POLK. It educates 462 students across grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 24% below the typical public school in Florida, which averages around 604 students.

JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL is one of 163 schools operated by POLK, a district that caters to 116,552 students overall.

In terms of who attends, JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL records that 40% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder consists of 38% Black, 18% White. The wider county runs roughly 29% Hispanic, putting the school's mix considerably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL has 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.9:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.5:1 average. Roughly 78% of students at JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is north of Polk County's rate of about 65%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 42.0%, the actual is 37.3%, a residual of -4.7 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Polk County indicate median household income runs about $65,978, roughly 24% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Polk County runs 172 public schools (combined enrollment of about 117,004 students), of which JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL is one.

The closest other public school is ROOSEVELT ACADEMY, roughly 0.4 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL at 6th of 7; the average score across the group is 46.5%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting. JANIE HOWARD WILSON SCHOOL operates as a public charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but governed independently of the surrounding district's traditional schools.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 15%: 403 students in 2018 compared to 462 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 27% to 18% across the same window. Class-load math has rose: from 9.6:1 in 2018 to 15.9:1 in 2025.

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