Palms Elementary School

As a low-enrollment K-5 school in IRA, Michigan, Palms Elementary School educates 245 students from grades K through 5, run under East China School District. By comparison, Michigan's public schools average about 369 students each, so Palms Elementary School sits 34% leaner than that benchmark.

Palms Elementary School is one of 9 schools operated by East China School District, a district that educates 3,405 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Palms Elementary School reports that nearly all students (98%) are White.

Looking at school resources, Palms Elementary School shows 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.1:1. The state averages about 15.8:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Around 27% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against St. Clair County (around 46%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Palms Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 54.5%, the actual is 47.8%, a residual of -6.8 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (St. Clair County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $71,270 per year, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Palms Elementary School is one of 57 public schools in St. Clair County (combined enrollment of about 20,511 students).

Francois Maconce Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 3.2 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Palms Elementary School comes 4th of 6 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 51.1%.

The school occupies an outlying site.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Palms Elementary School has edged up 14%, going from 214 students in 2018 to 245 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 18.9:1 in 2018 to 16.1:1 today.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.