Windsor Elementary

Windsor Elementary is a compact K-5 school in Des Moines, Iowa, part of Des Moines Independent Comm School District. The school works with 254 students in grades K through 5. By comparison, Iowa's public schools average about 325 students each, so Windsor Elementary sits 22% below that benchmark.

Windsor Elementary is one of 59 schools operated by Des Moines Independent Comm School District, a district that serves 29,676 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Windsor Elementary logs that the most-represented group is White (50%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school records 22% Hispanic, 14% Black, 11% multiracial, 3% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 76% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully less White than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Windsor Elementary shows 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.7:1 average. Around 57% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Windsor Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 63.2%; this one delivers 56.8%.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Polk County shows the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, roughly 40% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Polk County runs 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), of which Windsor Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Cowles Elementary School, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Windsor Elementary ranks 6th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 64.4%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 32%: 375 students in 2018 compared to 254 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 12% to 22% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 today.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.