PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, a moderately sized primary school in PENDER, Nebraska, part of PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOLS, serves 242 students, covering grades pre-K through 6.

Across the 2 schools in PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOLS (433 students total), PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

For racial and ethnic makeup, PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL reports that 81% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest reads as 14% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 37% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully more White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, The school reports having 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 11.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 21.0:1 average. An estimated 45% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

After controlling for student poverty, PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is in the OUTPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations model, which fits a per-state line through proficiency and FRL share. Schools with this campus's poverty mix typically land near 60.4%; this one delivers 77.3%, a residual of +16.9 points.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Thurston County put median household income runs about $69,177, roughly 22% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of 11 public schools in Thurston County (combined enrollment of about 2,146 students).

The closest other public school is PENDER HIGH SCHOOL, roughly 0.0 miles away. On composite proficiency, PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes 2nd of 4 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 66.3%.

PENDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL operates from a countryside location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count showed little movement: 239 students in 2018 compared to 242 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 93% to 81% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 11.4:1 in 2025.

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