Carrie Lee Elementary

Carrie Lee Elementary is a close-knit elementary-level community in Decorah, Iowa, one of the schools within Decorah Community School District. The school educates 215 students in grades 3 through 4. That puts it 34% smaller than the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 325 students.

Within Decorah Community School District, which oversees 5 schools and 1,522 students, Carrie Lee Elementary is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Carrie Lee Elementary reports that 87% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder comes out to 10% Hispanic, 2% multiracial.

On the resource side, Carrie Lee Elementary logs 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 12.9:1. The state averages around 13.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 31% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

After controlling for student poverty, Carrie Lee Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 76.6%, the actual is 82.3%, a residual of +5.7 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Winneshiek County put the typical household earns roughly $79,066 per year, about 31% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Carrie Lee Elementary is one of 10 public schools in Winneshiek County (combined enrollment of about 2,434 students).

The closest other public school is Decorah Middle School, roughly 0.1 miles away. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Carrie Lee Elementary comes 3rd of 7 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 82.0%.

The campus sits in a town-based setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Carrie Lee Elementary's enrollment has contracted 8% since 2018, when it stood at 234 (now 215). Hispanic enrollment moved from 6% to 10% across the same window. Class-load math has pulled in: from 14.9:1 in 2018 to 12.9:1 in 2025.

On this page, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.