Valerius Elementary School

Valerius Elementary School operates as a sprawling elementary-level community in Urbandale, Iowa, one of the schools within Urbandale Comm School District. Current enrollment sits at 598 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 325 students per school, that is 84% bigger than typical.

Valerius Elementary School is one of 6 schools operated by Urbandale Comm School District, a district that instructs 4,165 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Valerius Elementary School records that the largest single group is White, at 61% of enrollment. The remainder consists of 12% Hispanic, 11% Asian, 10% Black, 5% multiracial. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 76%.

On the resource side, On paper, Valerius Elementary School has 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.8:1. The state averages around 13.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 43% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Valerius Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 70.3%, the actual is 77.5%, a residual of +7.2 points.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Polk County put the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Valerius Elementary School is one of 137 public schools in Polk County (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students).

Nearest neighbor: Crestview School of Inquiry, around 1.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Valerius Elementary School at 3rd of 9; the average score across the group is 70.7%.

The campus sits in a residential setting.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Valerius Elementary School typically covers sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.