Fred W Ritter Elementary School

Located at 5650 CARLETON ROCKWOOD RD, in SOUTH ROCKWOOD, Michigan, Fred W Ritter Elementary School is an intimate elementary campus that serves 265 students (grades pre-K through 4), overseen by Airport Community Schools. That puts it 28% smaller than the typical public school in Michigan, which averages around 369 students.

Airport Community Schools runs 9 schools in total, collectively educating 2,849 students. Fred W Ritter Elementary School is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Fred W Ritter Elementary School records that the student body is overwhelmingly White (86%); the rest reads as 7% Hispanic, 5% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, The school reports having 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 69% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is north of Monroe County's rate of about 41%.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for Monroe County put median household income runs about $77,335, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Monroe County's 52 public schools (combined enrollment of about 20,286 students), Fred W Ritter Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Chapman Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.4 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

Fred W Ritter Elementary School operates from an outer-ring location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Fred W Ritter Elementary School has shrank 17%, going from 318 students in 2018 to 265 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 93% to 86% across the same window. Class-load math has fell: from 20.9:1 in 2018 to 16.5:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Fred W Ritter Elementary School community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.