SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM.

SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. is one of the mid-tier elementary campuss in INDEPENDENCE, Missouri, run under INDEPENDENCE 30, with 364 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5.

Across the 29 schools in INDEPENDENCE 30 (14,272 students total), SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. logs that 53% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 22% Hispanic, 12% Black, 10% multiracial. That is considerably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 62%.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. has 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.6:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 12.4:1, putting SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 76% of students at SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is north of Jackson County's rate of about 60%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 49.9%; this one delivers 69.3%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Jackson County) logs that median household income runs about $68,577, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Jackson County runs 244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 105,714 students), of which SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. is one.

The closest other public school is PROCTER ELEM., roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, SANTA FE TRAIL ELEM. comes 1st of 8 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 57.0%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 21%: 460 students in 2018 compared to 364 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share contracted from 61% to 53%.

Within the allk12 community for this school, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.