Brookside Elementary School

Located at 210 ESCOTT ST, in BIG RAPIDS, Michigan, Brookside Elementary School is a moderately sized elementary school that caters to 336 students (grades pre-K through 4), overseen by Big Rapids Public Schools.

Big Rapids Public Schools comprises 6 schools with combined enrollment of 2,405 students; Brookside Elementary School is among them.

Demographically, Brookside Elementary School lists that the student body is overwhelmingly White (82%); the rest comes out to 10% multiracial, 5% Black, 3% Hispanic. By comparison, Mecosta County as a whole is about 90% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.7:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.8:1, putting Brookside Elementary School higher than the state norm the norm. About 62% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Mecosta County (around 54%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Brookside Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 38.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 39.8%.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Mecosta County put median household earnings sit near $60,951, about 23% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, Mecosta County runs 19 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,219 students), of which Brookside Elementary School is one.

Crossroads Charter Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

Brookside Elementary School operates from a town-center location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Brookside Elementary School's enrollment has fell 6% since 2018, when it stood at 359 (now 336). Over the same period, the White share shrank from 90% to 82%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 19.5:1 in 2018 to 17.7:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Brookside Elementary School typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.