ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, a moderately sized elementary school in LAKEWOOD RANCH, Florida, one of the schools within MANATEE, instructs 785 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 30% bigger than the typical public school in Florida, which averages around 604 students.

MANATEE comprises 80 schools with combined enrollment of 54,215 students; ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is among them.

Demographically, ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL records that 65% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder comes out to 17% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 5% Asian, 2% Black.

In terms of school funding signals, The school reports having 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.5:1 average. Roughly 26% of students at ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Manatee County (around 51%), the school's rate is south of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 68.2%, the actual is 79.2%, a residual of +10.9 points.

In the surrounding community, Manatee County reports that median household earnings sit near $78,457, roughly 35% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Manatee County runs 86 public schools (combined enrollment of about 54,208 students), of which ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one.

Nearest neighbor: R. DAN NOLAN MIDDLE SCHOOL, around 1.8 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 2nd of 9; the average score across the group is 68.8%.

ROBERT WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL operates from a high-density location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count remained close to its prior level: 785 students in 2018 compared to 785 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 75% to 65% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 15.7:1 in 2018 to 16.7:1 today.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.