Stilwell Junior High School

Stilwell Junior High School is a big middle-grades school in West Des Moines, Iowa, overseen by West Des Moines Comm School District. The school teaches 645 students in grades 7 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 61% bigger than the state mean of about 400.

West Des Moines Comm School District runs 13 schools in total, collectively educating 9,009 students. Stilwell Junior High School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Stilwell Junior High School shows that 60% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder reads as 16% Hispanic, 12% Black, 7% multiracial, 4% Asian. By comparison, Polk County as a whole is about 76% White, so the school skews considerably less White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school employs 48 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 13.4:1. The state averages around 15.2:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 47% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Stilwell Junior High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 68.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 73.2%.

In the surrounding community, Polk County reports that median household earnings sit near $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. Across Polk County's 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), Stilwell Junior High School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Fairmeadows Elementary School, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Stilwell Junior High School at 2nd of 8; the average score across the group is 68.5%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 9%: 705 students in 2018 compared to 645 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 71% to 60% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 14.7:1 in 2018 to 13.4:1 in 2025.

On allk12, members of the Stilwell Junior High School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.