Hawkins Elementary

Hawkins Elementary operates as a low-enrollment elementary-level community in HATTIESBURG, Mississippi, part of Hattiesburg. Current enrollment sits at 283 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Mississippi's public schools average about 446 students each, so Hawkins Elementary sits 37% leaner than that benchmark.

Within Hattiesburg, which oversees 8 schools and 3,918 students, Hawkins Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Hawkins Elementary lists that Black students make up the majority at 62%. Beyond that, the school logs 28% Hispanic, 6% multiracial, 3% White. By comparison, Forrest County as a whole is about 36% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, Hawkins Elementary has 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.3:1. 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, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Forrest County runs at roughly 79%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

In the surrounding community, Forrest County reports that median household earnings sit near $53,640, about 31% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 16% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Forrest County's 21 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,857 students), Hawkins Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Hattiesburg High School, around 0.8 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Hawkins Elementary.

Geographically, the school is in an urban area.

Over the past 7-year window. Hawkins Elementary's enrollment has shrank 8% since 2018, when it stood at 309 (now 283). Over the same period, the Black share ticked down from 81% to 62%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 14.8:1 in 2018 to 12.3:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Hawkins Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.