Central Elementary School

Central Elementary School, a reasonably sized K-5 school in PORTAGE, Michigan, part of Portage Public Schools, hosts 439 students, covering grades K through 5.

Central Elementary School is one of 14 schools operated by Portage Public Schools, a district that caters to 8,479 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Central Elementary School logs that White students make up the majority at 69%. The remainder comes out to 11% multiracial, 8% Black, 7% Hispanic, 4% Asian.

On the resource side, On paper, Central Elementary School has 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 16.3:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 31% of students at Central Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably below Kalamazoo County's rate of about 45%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Central Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 52.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 48.6%.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Kalamazoo County indicate median household earnings sit near $72,532, about 41% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Across Kalamazoo County's 93 public schools (combined enrollment of about 34,151 students), Central Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Portage Central Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Central Elementary School at 5th of 7; the average score across the group is 52.8%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Five-year trend. Central Elementary School's enrollment has held roughly steady since 2018, when it stood at 440 (now 439). Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 83% to 69%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 18.3:1 in 2018 to 16.3:1 today.

On the community side, members of the Central Elementary School community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.