King Elementary School

King Elementary School is a primary school of mid-tier scale in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the schools within Des Moines Independent Comm School District, hosting 315 students in grades K through 5.

Des Moines Independent Comm School District comprises 59 schools with combined enrollment of 29,676 students; King Elementary School is among them.

On demographics, King Elementary School shows that the largest single group is Hispanic at 41%, but no single group is in the majority; the rest reads as 40% Black, 8% Asian, 6% White, 5% multiracial. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 10%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, King Elementary School has 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.1:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 96% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Polk County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, King Elementary School is in the bottom 10% of Iowa public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 43.8%; King Elementary School posts 29.9%, -13.9 points below that line.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Polk County indicate the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Polk County's 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), King Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Jessie Franklin Taylor, around 0.5 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), King Elementary School ranks 7th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 46.7%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at King Elementary School has edged down 4%, going from 329 students in 2018 to 315 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment contracted from 50% to 40% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 10.6:1 in 2018 to 13.1:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.