Essex Elementary School

Located at 111 Forbes St, in Essex, Iowa, Essex Elementary School is an one-room-style elementary-level community that educates 101 students (grades pre-K through 5), part of Essex Comm School District. Enrollment runs roughly 69% leaner than the state mean of about 325.

Essex Elementary School is one of 2 schools operated by Essex Comm School District, a district that hosts 188 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Essex Elementary School lists that the student body is overwhelmingly White (90%); the rest comes out to 6% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. Compared to Page County overall, the school's racial mix sits in roughly the same range.

In terms of school funding signals, Essex Elementary School shows 7 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 13.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 38% of students at Essex Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), On a poverty-adjusted basis, Essex Elementary School sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 73.1%; actual is 47.5%, a gap of -25.6 points.

Across the wider county, census data for Page County shows the typical household earns roughly $57,953 per year, 19% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Page County runs 11 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,557 students), of which Essex Elementary School is one.

Essex Junior-Senior High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. Within ten miles, there are 6 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. On composite proficiency, Essex Elementary School comes 6th of 6 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 68.8%.

Essex Elementary School operates from a rural location.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Essex Elementary School has showed little movement, going from 100 students in 2018 to 101 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 11.5:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.