Paulina Elementary School

Located at 2756 Highway 44, in Paulina, Louisiana, Paulina Elementary School is a reasonably sized elementary school that teaches 657 students (grades pre-K through 3), run under St. James Parish. That puts it 45% larger than the typical public school in Louisiana, which averages around 453 students.

Within St. James Parish, which oversees 6 schools and 3,194 students, Paulina Elementary School is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Paulina Elementary School reports that the largest single group is Black, at 56% of enrollment. The remainder comes out to 42% White. The wider county runs roughly 47% Black, putting the school's mix considerably more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, The school lists 59 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 11.2:1. The state averages around 14.0:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 62% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

After controlling for student poverty, Paulina Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 39.6%, the actual is 42.0%, a residual of +2.4 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (St. James Parish) records that the typical household earns roughly $65,531 per year, about 20% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Paulina Elementary School is one of 6 public schools in St. James Parish (combined enrollment of about 3,194 students).

Lutcher High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.0 miles from this campus. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Paulina Elementary School at 1st of 9; the average score across the group is 25.4%.

The school occupies a suburban site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count increased 3%: 638 students in 2018 compared to 657 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share climbed from 43% to 56%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 16.1:1 in 2018 to 11.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.