Katie Harper-Wright Elem

Katie Harper-Wright Elem operates as a medium-sized primary school in East Saint Louis, Illinois, one of the schools within East St Louis SD 189. Current enrollment sits at 418 students spanning grades pre-K through 4.

East St Louis SD 189 comprises 10 schools with combined enrollment of 4,646 students; Katie Harper-Wright Elem is among them.

On demographics, Katie Harper-Wright Elem lists that nearly all students (97%) are Black. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 28%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.5:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. About 99% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, St. Clair County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Katie Harper-Wright Elem sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 14.3%; this one delivers 16.8%.

Around the school, St. Clair County reports that the typical household earns roughly $73,854 per year, about 32% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across St. Clair County's 96 public schools (combined enrollment of about 40,879 students), Katie Harper-Wright Elem is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Mason/Clark Middle Sch, roughly 1.5 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Katie Harper-Wright Elem comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 24.6%.

The campus sits in a suburban setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Katie Harper-Wright Elem has edged up 7%, going from 392 students in 2018 to 418 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 15.0:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.