McKinley School

McKinley School is an elementary school of sizable scale in Billings, Montana, operated by Billings Elem, educateing 339 students in grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Montana's public schools average about 167 students each, so McKinley School sits 103% larger than that benchmark.

Within Billings Elem, which oversees 29 schools and 11,377 students, McKinley School is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, McKinley School records that the most-represented group is White (53%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 19% Native American, 13% multiracial, 12% Hispanic. By comparison, Yellowstone County as a whole is about 86% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 11.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 64% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Yellowstone County's rate of about 48%.

In the broader community, census data for Yellowstone County shows the typical household earns roughly $76,570 per year, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Yellowstone County runs 68 public schools (combined enrollment of about 23,853 students), of which McKinley School is one.

Billings Multilingual Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around McKinley School.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count expanded 29%: 263 students in 2018 compared to 339 in 2025. The White share of enrollment edged down from 65% to 53% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 today.

On this page, the feed for McKinley School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.