Shepherd Elementary School

Set in SHEPHERD, Michigan, Shepherd Elementary School is a mid-sized K-5 school, operated by Shepherd Public Schools. It enrolls 544 students across grades K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 47% bigger than the state mean of about 369.

Shepherd Elementary School is one of 5 schools operated by Shepherd Public Schools, a district that educates 1,746 students overall.

Demographically, Shepherd Elementary School lists that nearly all students (85%) are White. The remainder consists of 6% Hispanic, 6% Native American. That composition is broadly in line with Isabella County as a whole.

On the income-and-resources front, Shepherd Elementary School shows 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 15.6:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 57% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Isabella County runs at roughly 47%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Shepherd Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 40.9%, the actual is 39.4%, a residual of -1.5 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Isabella County indicate the typical household earns roughly $55,237 per year, 31% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 14% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Isabella County's 20 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,493 students), Shepherd Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Shepherd High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

The school occupies an outlying site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Shepherd Elementary School has ticked down 18%, going from 660 students in 2018 to 544 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 17.4:1 in 2018 to 15.6:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Shepherd Elementary School community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.