Lettie Marshall Dent Elem

Set in Mechanicsville, Maryland, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is a mid-tier primary school, overseen by St. Mary's County Public Schools. It instructs 479 students across grades pre-K through 5.

Across the 26 schools in St. Mary's County Public Schools (16,905 students total), Lettie Marshall Dent Elem accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem records that nearly all students (80%) are White. The remainder consists of 7% multiracial, 6% Black, 6% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 71% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully more White than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem lists 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.7:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 38% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

After controlling for student poverty, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 51.5%, the actual is 44.3%, a residual of -7.2 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for St. Mary's County indicate the typical household earns roughly $119,446 per year, 37% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, St. Mary's County runs 28 public schools (combined enrollment of about 16,905 students), of which Lettie Marshall Dent Elem is one.

White Marsh Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.7 miles from this campus. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Lettie Marshall Dent Elem comes 7th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 51.1%.

The school occupies a countryside site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Lettie Marshall Dent Elem has shrank 22%, going from 611 students in 2018 to 479 in 2025. The White share of enrollment decreased from 89% to 80% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 19.4:1 in 2018 to 17.7:1 in 2025.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.