Jonas E Salk Elementary School

Jonas E Salk Elementary School is one of the medium-sized K-5 schools in Merrillville, Indiana, run under Merrillville Community School Corp, with 565 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 4. That puts it 30% bigger than the typical public school in Indiana, which averages around 436 students.

Jonas E Salk Elementary School is one of 8 schools operated by Merrillville Community School Corp, a district that teaches 5,904 students overall.

Demographically, Jonas E Salk Elementary School reports that Black students make up the majority at 58%. Other groups include 23% Hispanic, 12% White, 6% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 23% Black, putting the school's mix considerably more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Jonas E Salk Elementary School has 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.5:1 average. Around 52% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Jonas E Salk Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 38.5%, the actual is 42.8%, a residual of +4.3 points.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Lake County) logs that median household income runs about $71,493, about 26% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Lake County runs 121 public schools (combined enrollment of about 74,661 students), of which Jonas E Salk Elementary School is one.

Homer Iddings Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Jonas E Salk Elementary School. On composite proficiency, Jonas E Salk Elementary School comes 1st of 7 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 25.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Jonas E Salk Elementary School's enrollment has contracted 11% since 2018, when it stood at 636 (now 565). Over the same period, the White share fell from 20% to 12%. Class-load math has fell: from 16.6:1 in 2018 to 13.1:1 in 2025.

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