South Side Lower Elementary

As a low-enrollment elementary school in Picayune, Mississippi, South Side Lower Elementary instructs 320 students from grades pre-K through 2, overseen by Picayune School District. Compared to the state average of about 446 students per school, that is 28% leaner than typical.

Picayune School District comprises 8 schools with combined enrollment of 3,359 students; South Side Lower Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, South Side Lower Elementary logs that White students make up the majority at 58%. The remainder breaks down as 32% Black, 7% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 80% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully less White than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, The school currently runs with 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 17.1:1. The state averages around 15.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 82% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Pearl River County runs at roughly 65%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, South Side Lower Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 53.1%, the actual is 53.4%, a residual of +0.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Pearl River County indicate median household earnings sit near $58,135, about 17% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 14% of residents live below the federal poverty line. South Side Lower Elementary is one of 20 public schools in Pearl River County (combined enrollment of about 8,456 students).

The closest other public school is South Side Upper Elementary, roughly 0.1 miles away. Within five miles, there are 7 other public schools.

Geographically, the school is in a town-center area.

Looking at the recent track record. South Side Lower Elementary's enrollment has edged up 10% since 2018, when it stood at 290 (now 320). The Black share of enrollment edged down from 42% to 32% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 18.2:1 in 2018 to 17.1:1 today.

On allk12, members of the South Side Lower Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.