RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a rural-scale elementary-level community in JACKSONVILLE, Florida, part of DUVAL. The school instructs 233 students in grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 61% leaner than the state mean of about 604.

Within DUVAL, which oversees 206 schools and 131,562 students, RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL logs that nearly all students (88%) are Black; the rest breaks down as 5% multiracial, 4% White, 2% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 29% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, On paper, RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.4:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.5:1, putting RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 83% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Duval County (around 47%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL sits in the top 10% of Florida schools after the BeatsExpectations adjustment. Predicted proficiency for the school's FRL share is roughly 39.6%; actual is 55.5%, +15.8 points clear of the demographic baseline.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Duval County put median household earnings sit near $71,277, 34% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Duval County runs 220 public schools (combined enrollment of about 141,209 students), of which RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one.

The closest other public school is TIGER ACADEMY, roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes 1st of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 40.4%.

Geographically, the school is in a downtown area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at RUFUS E. PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has decreased 28%, going from 324 students in 2018 to 233 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 95% to 88% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 16.2:1 in 2018 to 19.4:1 today.

On allk12, recent activity here tends to focus on open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.