Thames Elementary

Thames Elementary is one of the middle-of-the-pack elementary campuss in HATTIESBURG, Mississippi, operated by Hattiesburg, with 619 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Mississippi's public schools average about 446 students each, so Thames Elementary sits 39% larger than that benchmark.

Hattiesburg runs 8 schools in total, collectively educating 3,918 students. Thames Elementary is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Thames Elementary reports that 73% of the student body identifies as Black. Beyond that, the school shows 18% multiracial, 4% White, 4% Hispanic. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 36%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Thames Elementary has 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.3:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 100% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, 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 above the surrounding baseline.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Forrest County) shows that median household earnings sit near $53,640, roughly 31% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 16%. In all, Forrest County runs 21 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,857 students), of which Thames Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Woodley Elementary, roughly 1.1 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Thames Elementary.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count held roughly steady: 615 students in 2018 compared to 619 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share ticked down from 87% to 73%.

On the community side, members of the Thames Elementary community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.