Barbe Elementary School

Barbe Elementary School, a tiny elementary-level community in Lake Charles, Louisiana, overseen by Calcasieu Parish, works with 179 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 453 students per school, that is 60% smaller than typical.

Within Calcasieu Parish, which oversees 56 schools and 27,851 students, Barbe Elementary School is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Barbe Elementary School logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (82%). Beyond that, the school logs 9% White, 5% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 23% Black, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Barbe Elementary School reports 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.0:1 average. An estimated 88% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Calcasieu Parish runs at roughly 59%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Barbe Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 21.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 15.3%.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Calcasieu Parish) logs that median household earnings sit near $67,564, about 25% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. Across Calcasieu Parish's 61 public schools (combined enrollment of about 30,278 students), Barbe Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

T. S. Cooley Elementary Magnet School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 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), Barbe Elementary School ranks 8th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 38.7%.

The school occupies an urban site.

Looking at the recent track record. Barbe Elementary School's enrollment has ticked down 40% since 2018, when it stood at 296 (now 179). Class-load math has fell: from 15.2:1 in 2018 to 11.6:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.