Bel-Aire Elementary

As a medium-sized elementary campus in Gulfport, Mississippi, Bel-Aire Elementary enrolls 598 students from grades K through 6, run under Harrison County School District. By comparison, Mississippi's public schools average about 446 students each, so Bel-Aire Elementary sits 34% bigger than that benchmark.

Across the 22 schools in Harrison County School District (14,253 students total), Bel-Aire Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Bel-Aire Elementary records that Black students make up the majority at 65%. The remainder reads as 18% White, 16% Hispanic. By comparison, Harrison County as a whole is about 24% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.8:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 98% of students at Bel-Aire Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Harrison County runs at roughly 74%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Harrison County) records that median household income runs about $59,479, about 28% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. Across Harrison County's 55 public schools (combined enrollment of about 30,521 students), Bel-Aire Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Crossroads Elementary, roughly 0.1 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Bel-Aire Elementary's enrollment has contracted 15% since 2018, when it stood at 702 (now 598). Over the same period, the Hispanic share edged up from 7% to 16%.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.