Buford Garner Elementary

As a mid-tier elementary school in North Liberty, Iowa, Buford Garner Elementary educates 344 students from grades pre-K through 5, run under Iowa City Comm School District.

Within Iowa City Comm School District, which oversees 29 schools and 15,111 students, Buford Garner Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Buford Garner Elementary records that the largest single group is White, at 61% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 13% Black, 12% multiracial, 12% Hispanic. By comparison, Johnson County as a whole is about 76% White, so the school skews visibly less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.5:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. About 31% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, Buford Garner Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 76.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 68.8%.

Across the wider county, Johnson County reports that median household income runs about $74,935, 55% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Buford Garner Elementary is one of 43 public schools in Johnson County (combined enrollment of about 20,019 students).

Penn Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Buford Garner Elementary. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Buford Garner Elementary ranks 9th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 78.1%.

The campus sits in a residential setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 48%: 663 students in 2018 compared to 344 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 78% to 61% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 17.0:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.