W.P. Foster Elementary School

Located at 101 Second Street, in Franklin, Louisiana, W.P. Foster Elementary School is a close-knit K-5 school that works with 222 students (grades pre-K through 5), part of St. Mary Parish. Compared to the state average of about 453 students per school, that is 51% smaller than typical.

W.P. Foster Elementary School is one of 21 schools operated by St. Mary Parish, a district that educates 7,153 students overall.

Looking at the student body, W.P. Foster Elementary School shows that the largest single group is Black, at 77% of enrollment. The remainder comes out to 14% White, 6% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 29%.

Looking at school resources, The school employs 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 13.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 95% of students at W.P. Foster Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against St. Mary Parish (around 75%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), W.P. Foster Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 15.8%, the actual is 15.7%, a residual of -0.2 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (St. Mary Parish) records that the typical household earns roughly $52,576 per year, about 14% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 18%. In all, St. Mary Parish runs 23 public schools (combined enrollment of about 7,765 students), of which W.P. Foster Elementary School is one.

The closest other public school is Franklin Junior High School, roughly 1.4 miles away. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, W.P. Foster Elementary School comes 5th of 6 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 23.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-based area.

Looking at the recent track record. W.P. Foster Elementary School's enrollment has edged down 30% since 2018, when it stood at 315 (now 222). The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 17.5:1 in 2018 to 13.9:1 today.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.