McCandless Elementary

Set in Hutchinson, Kansas, McCandless Elementary is a moderately sized K-5 school, overseen by Hutchinson Public Schools. It enrolls 346 students across grades pre-K through 6.

Hutchinson Public Schools runs 10 schools in total, collectively educating 3,957 students. McCandless Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, McCandless Elementary logs that the largest single group is White at 54%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school records 32% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 4% Black. By comparison, Reno County as a whole is about 85% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, McCandless Elementary has 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 11.8:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.2:1, putting McCandless Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 94% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is north of Reno County's rate of about 55%.

With demographic context factored in, McCandless Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 17.3%, the actual is 19.9%, a residual of +2.5 points.

In the area at large, the surrounding county (Reno County) records that the typical household earns roughly $60,645 per year, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Across Reno County's 33 public schools (combined enrollment of about 8,909 students), McCandless Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Hutchinson High School, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around McCandless Elementary. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), McCandless Elementary ranks 6th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 23.9%.

The campus sits in a town-based setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at McCandless Elementary has expanded 53%, going from 226 students in 2018 to 346 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 19% to 32% across the same window. Class-load math has grew: from 9.1:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the McCandless Elementary community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.