PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, a low-enrollment elementary campus in POINCIANA, Florida, run under POLK, hosts 479 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 604 students per school, that is 21% leaner than typical.

POLK runs 163 schools in total, collectively educating 116,552 students. PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lists that 66% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Other groups include 25% Black, 7% White, 2% multiracial. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 29%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school currently runs with 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 19.2:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.5:1, putting PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL higher than the state norm the norm. Around 74% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is north of Polk County's rate of about 65%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.2%, the actual is 36.8%, a residual of -7.4 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Polk County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $65,978 per year, 24% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. Across Polk County's 172 public schools (combined enrollment of about 117,004 students), PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is CHESTNUT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, roughly 0.4 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes 5th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 42.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a bedroom-community area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PALMETTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has contracted 13%, going from 551 students in 2018 to 479 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment grew from 18% to 25% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 13.1:1 in 2018 to 19.2:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.