Highland Elementary School

Highland Elementary School is one of the middle-of-the-pack elementary-level communitys in Waterloo, Iowa, part of Waterloo Comm School District, with 448 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 325 students per school, that is 38% above typical.

Highland Elementary School is one of 18 schools operated by Waterloo Comm School District, a district that instructs 10,484 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Highland Elementary School lists that the most-represented group is Hispanic (29%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder breaks down as 28% White, 26% Black, 13% multiracial, 3% Pacific Islander. By comparison, Black Hawk County as a whole is about 5% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Highland Elementary School has 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 11.9:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.7:1 average. Roughly 90% of students at Highland Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Black Hawk County (around 52%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Highland Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 47.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 48.5%.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Black Hawk County indicate the typical household earns roughly $66,417 per year, about 30% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Highland Elementary School is one of 35 public schools in Black Hawk County (combined enrollment of about 18,224 students).

Nearest neighbor: Expo Alternative Learning Center, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Highland Elementary School. On composite proficiency, Highland Elementary School comes 6th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 54.6%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 24%: 589 students in 2018 compared to 448 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.