WILLARD SOUTH ELEM.

As a medium-sized elementary school in SPRINGFIELD, Missouri, WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. caters to 395 students from grades pre-K through 4, run under WILLARD R-II. Enrollment runs roughly 25% above the state mean of about 315.

WILLARD R-II comprises 9 schools with combined enrollment of 4,578 students; WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. is among them.

On the student-mix side, WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. lists that the largest single group is White, at 73% of enrollment; the rest reads as 11% Hispanic, 9% Black, 6% multiracial. By comparison, Greene County as a whole is about 86% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. has 34 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 11.7:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 12.4:1, putting WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. tighter than the state norm the norm. About 58% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably above Greene County's rate of about 47%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 50.2%; this one delivers 51.8%.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Greene County put median household income runs about $61,479, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Across Greene County's 97 public schools (combined enrollment of about 42,423 students), WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: BISSETT ELEM., around 1.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around WILLARD SOUTH ELEM.. On composite proficiency, WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 49.1%.

The school occupies a residential site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 10%: 441 students in 2018 compared to 395 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share expanded from 4% to 9%.

On this page, members of the WILLARD SOUTH ELEM. community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.