Hernando Elementary School

Hernando Elementary School operates as a big elementary school in Hernando, Mississippi, one of the schools within DeSoto County School District. Current enrollment sits at 707 students spanning grades pre-K through 1. By comparison, Mississippi's public schools average about 446 students each, so Hernando Elementary School sits 59% bigger than that benchmark.

Within DeSoto County School District, which oversees 39 schools and 34,934 students, Hernando Elementary School is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, Hernando Elementary School reports that 75% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder looks like 10% Black, 9% Hispanic, 5% multiracial. That is meaningfully more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 57%.

On the resource side, On paper, Hernando Elementary School has 42 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 16.7:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 15.9:1 average. Roughly 33% of students at Hernando Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, DeSoto County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is lower than the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Hernando Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 77.7%; this one delivers 75.2%.

In the broader community, census data for DeSoto County shows median household income runs about $85,297, roughly 29% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Hernando Elementary School is one of 43 public schools in DeSoto County (combined enrollment of about 34,934 students).

Nearest neighbor: Hernando Middle School, around 0.3 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around Hernando Elementary School.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 6%: 666 students in 2018 compared to 707 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment ticked up from 1% to 9% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 18.6:1 in 2018 to 16.7:1 today.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.