T. H. Watkins Elementary School

T. H. Watkins Elementary School is an elementary-level community of minimally staffed scale in Lake Charles, Louisiana, part of Calcasieu Parish, instructing 165 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 64% leaner than the typical public school in Louisiana, which averages around 453 students.

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

Looking at the student body, T. H. Watkins Elementary School reports that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (89%); the rest is composed of 4% multiracial, 4% White, 3% Hispanic. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 23%.

On the resource side, On paper, T. H. Watkins Elementary School has 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 10.0:1. The state averages around 14.0:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 91% of students at T. H. Watkins Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Calcasieu Parish runs at roughly 59%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, T. H. Watkins Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 19.1%; this one delivers 21.3%.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Calcasieu Parish indicate median household income runs about $67,564, 25% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 13% of residents live below the federal poverty line. T. H. Watkins Elementary School is one of 61 public schools in Calcasieu Parish (combined enrollment of about 30,278 students).

Nearest neighbor: Oak Park Middle School, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around T. H. Watkins Elementary School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts T. H. Watkins Elementary School at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 19.1%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at T. H. Watkins Elementary School has ticked down 36%, going from 256 students in 2018 to 165 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 17.1:1 in 2018 to 10.0:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.