Barnett Shoals Elementary School

Barnett Shoals Elementary School is a primary school of modestly sized scale in Athens, Georgia, one of the schools within Clarke County, hosting 490 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Clarke County comprises 21 schools with combined enrollment of 12,275 students; Barnett Shoals Elementary School is among them.

On demographics, Barnett Shoals Elementary School shows that 51% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest breaks down as 27% White, 11% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 2% Asian. That is considerably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 26%.

Looking at school resources, Barnett Shoals Elementary School reports 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 9.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.3:1 average. Around 100% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Clarke County (around 91%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Barnett Shoals Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 25.7%, the actual is 38.0%, a residual of +12.3 points.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for Clarke County put median household earnings sit near $53,625, roughly 47% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 13%. In all, Clarke County runs 22 public schools (combined enrollment of about 13,750 students), of which Barnett Shoals Elementary School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Whit Davis Road Elementary School, around 1.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Barnett Shoals Elementary School at 4th of 9; the average score across the group is 26.6%.

Barnett Shoals Elementary School operates from a city-core location.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 13%: 562 students in 2018 compared to 490 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 11.7:1 in 2018 to 9.8:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.