RAFT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

As an intimate primary school in MALTA, Idaho, RAFT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serves 143 students from grades pre-K through 6, part of CASSIA COUNTY JOINT DISTRICT. That puts it 57% below the typical public school in Idaho, which averages around 332 students.

CASSIA COUNTY JOINT DISTRICT comprises 16 schools with combined enrollment of 5,484 students; RAFT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, RAFT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL shows that 90% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Other groups include 10% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 69% White, putting the school's mix visibly more White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, The school lists 8 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 17.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 56% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Cassia County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $70,830 per year, about 21% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Across Cassia County's 17 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,484 students), RAFT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

RAFT RIVER JR/SR HIGH SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus.

The school occupies a countryside site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 24%: 189 students in 2018 compared to 143 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 21% to 10% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 19.0:1 in 2018 to 17.9:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.