Hillside Elementary School

Hillside Elementary School is a substantial elementary-level community in West Des Moines, Iowa, operated by West Des Moines Comm School District. The school works with 548 students in grades pre-K through 6. By comparison, Iowa's public schools average about 325 students each, so Hillside Elementary School sits 69% larger than that benchmark.

Hillside Elementary School is one of 13 schools operated by West Des Moines Comm School District, a district that works with 9,009 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Hillside Elementary School reports that the most-represented group is White (45%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school logs 26% Hispanic, 18% Black, 8% multiracial, 2% Asian. By comparison, Polk County as a whole is about 76% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.7:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.7:1, putting Hillside Elementary School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 72% of students at Hillside Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Polk County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Hillside Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 56.1%, the actual is 61.7%, a residual of +5.6 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Polk County indicate median household income runs about $83,576, roughly 40% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Hillside Elementary School is one of 137 public schools in Polk County (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students).

The closest other public school is Walnut Creek Campus, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Hillside Elementary School at 6th of 8; the average score across the group is 68.9%.

The campus sits in an inner-city setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 4%: 571 students in 2018 compared to 548 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share shrank from 53% to 45%. Class-load math has tightened: from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the feed for Hillside Elementary School typically covers sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.