SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Located at 1430 SE 24TH RD, in OCALA, Florida, SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a mid-sized elementary-level community that caters to 712 students (grades pre-K through 5), operated by MARION.

SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of 62 schools operated by MARION, a district that works with 46,349 students overall.

Demographically, SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL logs that 36% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest reads as 32% Black, 24% Hispanic, 6% multiracial. By comparison, Marion County as a whole is about 69% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.2:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.5:1, putting SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL tighter than the state norm the norm. About 69% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Marion County (around 57%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 46.8% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 42.0%.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Marion County indicate the typical household earns roughly $61,010 per year, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Marion County runs 68 public schools (combined enrollment of about 46,349 students), of which SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one.

EIGHTH STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.6 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 4th of 5; the average score across the group is 55.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a city-core area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has ticked up 5%, going from 679 students in 2018 to 712 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 15% to 24%. The student-to-teacher ratio loosened from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 15.2:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the feed for SOUTH OCALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.