KORTE ELEM.

KORTE ELEM. is a mid-sized K-5 school in INDEPENDENCE, Missouri, one of the schools within INDEPENDENCE 30. The school hosts 444 students in grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Missouri's public schools average about 315 students each, so KORTE ELEM. sits 41% bigger than that benchmark.

INDEPENDENCE 30 runs 29 schools in total, collectively educating 14,272 students. KORTE ELEM. is one of those campuses.

On demographics, KORTE ELEM. lists that the most-represented group is Hispanic (42%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest consists of 32% White, 13% Black, 11% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 11% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 30 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.8:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 12.4:1, putting KORTE ELEM. higher than the state norm the norm. About 89% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Jackson County's rate of about 60%.

After controlling for student poverty, KORTE ELEM. tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 49.6% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 56.4%.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Jackson County indicate median household earnings sit near $68,577, about 34% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Jackson County runs 244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 105,714 students), of which KORTE ELEM. is one.

CLIFFORD H. NOWLIN MIDDLE is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around KORTE ELEM.. On composite proficiency, KORTE ELEM. comes 5th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 57.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. KORTE ELEM.'s enrollment has shrank 28% since 2018, when it stood at 617 (now 444). The White share of enrollment fell from 45% to 32% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 16.2:1 in 2018 to 14.8:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.