South Side Elementary School

South Side Elementary School is a middle-of-the-pack K-5 school in Hampton, Iowa, run under Hampton-Dumont Comm School District. The school caters to 303 students in grades 1 through 4.

South Side Elementary School is one of 4 schools operated by Hampton-Dumont Comm School District, a district that caters to 1,268 students overall.

Looking at the student body, South Side Elementary School shows that the largest single group is White at 54%, but no single group is in the majority; the rest comes out to 43% Hispanic. By comparison, Franklin County as a whole is about 84% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.1:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.7:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 60% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Franklin County's rate of about 49%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, South Side Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 61.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 67.9%.

In the surrounding community, Franklin County reports that median household earnings sit near $59,894, about 19% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Across Franklin County's 7 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,800 students), South Side Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Hampton-Dumont Middle School, roughly 1.0 miles away. Within five miles, there are 3 other public schools. On composite proficiency, South Side Elementary School comes 5th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 73.0%.

South Side Elementary School operates from a small-town location.

Trend over the last 7 years. South Side Elementary School's enrollment has increased 26% since 2018, when it stood at 240 (now 303). Class-load math has loosened: from 10.6:1 in 2018 to 13.1:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the South Side Elementary School community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.