St. James High School

Located at 22187 Hwy 20, in Vacherie, Louisiana, St. James High School is a tight-knit senior high that instructs 593 students (grades 7 through 12), one of the schools within St. James Parish.

Across the 6 schools in St. James Parish (3,194 students total), St. James High School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, St. James High School logs that Black students make up the majority at 74%. Beyond that, the school shows 22% White, 3% Hispanic. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 47%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, St. James High School has 52 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 11.3:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 18.0:1, putting St. James High School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 72% of students at St. James High School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is north of St. James Parish's rate of about 64%.

After controlling for student poverty, St. James High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.9%, the actual is 33.7%, a residual of +0.7 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (St. James Parish) reports that the typical household earns roughly $65,531 per year, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Across St. James Parish's 6 public schools (combined enrollment of about 3,194 students), St. James High School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Vacherie Elementary School, roughly 2.4 miles away. Within five miles, there are 3 other public schools. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), St. James High School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 40.0%.

The campus sits in an outlying setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at St. James High School has fell 8%, going from 648 students in 2018 to 593 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 12.4:1 in 2018 to 11.3:1 today.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.