CHARLESTON HIGH

CHARLESTON HIGH operates as a cozy senior high in CHARLESTON, Missouri, one of the schools within CHARLESTON R-I. Current enrollment sits at 310 students spanning grades 7 through 12. That puts it 38% below the typical public school in Missouri, which averages around 501 students.

CHARLESTON R-I runs 3 schools in total, collectively educating 727 students. CHARLESTON HIGH is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, CHARLESTON HIGH reports that Black students make up the majority at 66%. The remainder breaks down as 26% White, 4% multiracial, 3% Hispanic. By comparison, Mississippi County as a whole is about 19% Black, so the school skews considerably more Black than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.1:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 12.2:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 100% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, CHARLESTON HIGH performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 49.4%, the actual is 59.8%, a residual of +10.3 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Mississippi County) shows that the typical household earns roughly $48,160 per year, roughly 15% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 16% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Mississippi County runs 7 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,730 students), of which CHARLESTON HIGH is one.

Nearest neighbor: WARREN E. HEARNES ELEM., around 0.6 miles off. Within five miles, there are 2 other public schools. On composite proficiency, CHARLESTON HIGH comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 38.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a low-density area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 13%: 275 students in 2018 compared to 310 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 32% to 26% over that span.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.