Franklin Academy

Franklin Academy is an elementary-level community of cozy scale in Columbus, Mississippi, overseen by Columbus Municipal School District, works with 231 students in grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 48% below the typical public school in Mississippi, which averages around 446 students.

Within Columbus Municipal School District, which oversees 7 schools and 3,011 students, Franklin Academy is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Franklin Academy lists that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (84%). Other groups include 6% White, 5% multiracial, 3% Hispanic, 3% Asian. By comparison, Lowndes County as a whole is about 44% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, The school currently runs with 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 14.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.9:1 average. Around 100% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Lowndes County (around 75%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Lowndes County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $53,812 per year, roughly 28% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 15%. In all, Lowndes County runs 20 public schools (combined enrollment of about 8,512 students), of which Franklin Academy is one.

Nearest neighbor: MS SCHOOL FOR MATH AND SCIENCE, around 0.7 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

The school occupies a town-based site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 30%: 328 students in 2018 compared to 231 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share decreased from 94% to 84%. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.2:1 in 2018 to 14.0:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.