Melcher-Dallas Elementary

Melcher-Dallas Elementary is a tight-knit K-5 school in Dallas, Iowa, part of Melcher-Dallas Comm School District. The school caters to 157 students in grades pre-K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 52% below the state mean of about 325.

Melcher-Dallas Comm School District runs 2 schools in total, collectively educating 308 students. Melcher-Dallas Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Melcher-Dallas Elementary lists that the student body is overwhelmingly White (97%). That composition is broadly in line with Marion County as a whole.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Melcher-Dallas Elementary has 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.1:1. The state averages about 13.7:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 39% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is north of Marion County's rate of about 29%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Melcher-Dallas Elementary sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 72.5%; actual is 61.7%, a gap of -10.8 points.

Around the school, Marion County reports that the typical household earns roughly $78,680 per year, 32% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Marion County runs 17 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,571 students), of which Melcher-Dallas Elementary is one.

Melcher-Dallas High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.9 miles from this campus. 6 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Melcher-Dallas Elementary ranks 7th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 68.3%.

The campus sits in a rural setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Melcher-Dallas Elementary has edged down 33%, going from 233 students in 2018 to 157 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 16.2:1 in 2018 to 13.1:1 in 2025.

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