Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School

Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School operates as a low-enrollment intermediate school in Demorest, Georgia, operated by Habersham County. Current enrollment sits at 566 students spanning grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 26% leaner than the state mean of about 763.

Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School is one of 14 schools operated by Habersham County, a district that educates 7,257 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School lists that the largest single group is White at 45%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder comes out to 44% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 3% Black, 2% Asian. By comparison, Habersham County as a whole is about 79% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School shows 48 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.9:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.1:1 average. An estimated 92% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School sits in the top 10% of Georgia schools after the BeatsExpectations adjustment. Predicted proficiency for the school's FRL share is roughly 29.6%; actual is 48.3%, +18.7 points clear of the demographic baseline.

In the surrounding community, Habersham County reports that median household earnings sit near $67,309, about 25% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Across Habersham County's 13 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,835 students), Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Demorest Elementary School, around 0.3 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 41.3%.

The school occupies a town-based site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School's enrollment has rose 10% since 2018, when it stood at 514 (now 566). Over the same period, the Hispanic share edged up from 37% to 44%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 14.5:1 in 2018 to 11.9:1 today.

On this page, members of the Hilliard A. Wilbanks Middle School community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.