KEARNEY MIDDLE

As a mid-tier middle school in KEARNEY, Missouri, KEARNEY MIDDLE educates 591 students from grades 6 through 7, operated by KEARNEY R-I. By comparison, Missouri's public schools average about 461 students each, so KEARNEY MIDDLE sits 28% larger than that benchmark.

Within KEARNEY R-I, which oversees 9 schools and 3,424 students, KEARNEY MIDDLE is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, KEARNEY MIDDLE logs that the student body is overwhelmingly White (88%). Other groups include 5% multiracial, 5% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 79% White, putting the school's mix visibly more White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 40 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.9:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Roughly 17% of students at KEARNEY MIDDLE qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Clay County (around 35%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, KEARNEY MIDDLE sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 51.0%; this one delivers 58.7%.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Clay County indicate median household earnings sit near $88,468, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. In all, Clay County runs 80 public schools (combined enrollment of about 41,553 students), of which KEARNEY MIDDLE is one.

The closest other public school is KEARNEY EARLY EDUCATION CENTER, roughly 0.2 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts KEARNEY MIDDLE at 4th of 8; the average score across the group is 53.8%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Over the past 7-year window. KEARNEY MIDDLE's enrollment has grew 12% since 2018, when it stood at 530 (now 591). White enrollment moved from 94% to 88% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 14.9:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for KEARNEY MIDDLE typically covers school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.