Monroe Elementary School

Set in South Bend, Indiana, Monroe Elementary School is a medium-sized K-5 school, one of the schools within South Bend Community School Corp. It caters to 519 students across grades K through 5.

South Bend Community School Corp runs 29 schools in total, collectively educating 13,585 students. Monroe Elementary School is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Monroe Elementary School logs that 43% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 21% White, 20% Hispanic, 15% multiracial. By comparison, St. Joseph County as a whole is about 13% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Monroe Elementary School lists 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 14.9:1. The state averages about 15.5:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 68% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is north of St. Joseph County's rate of about 46%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Monroe Elementary School is in the bottom 10% of Indiana public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 27.6%; Monroe Elementary School posts 9.3%, -18.3 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (St. Joseph County) reports that median household earnings sit near $66,868, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Across St. Joseph County's 73 public schools (combined enrollment of about 35,614 students), Monroe Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Riley High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Monroe Elementary School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Monroe Elementary School at 4th of 5; the average score across the group is 15.9%.

Monroe Elementary School operates from a city-core location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked up 65%: 314 students in 2018 compared to 519 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share increased from 12% to 20%.

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.