Alto Elementary School

Alto Elementary School, a moderately sized elementary school in ALTO, Michigan, part of Lowell Area Schools, enrolls 417 students, covering grades pre-K through 5.

Within Lowell Area Schools, which oversees 7 schools and 3,455 students, Alto Elementary School is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Alto Elementary School shows that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Beyond that, the school reports 5% Hispanic, 5% multiracial. By comparison, Kent County as a whole is about 73% White, so the school skews noticeably more White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.6:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 15.8:1 average. An estimated 16% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Kent County runs at roughly 47%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Alto Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 59.4%, the actual is 65.8%, a residual of +6.4 points.

Around the school, Kent County reports that the typical household earns roughly $82,631 per year, about 41% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Alto Elementary School is one of 239 public schools in Kent County (combined enrollment of about 97,253 students).

The closest other public school is Kettle Lake Elementary School, roughly 4.1 miles away. Within ten miles, there are 8 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Alto Elementary School at 4th of 6; the average score across the group is 68.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a rural area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Alto Elementary School's enrollment has edged down 17% since 2018, when it stood at 505 (now 417). The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 20.6:1 in 2018 to 16.6:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.