Dr. L. F. Soule School

Dr. L. F. Soule School is a middle-of-the-pack primary school in Salem, New Hampshire, run under Salem School District. The school hosts 270 students in grades K through 5.

Across the 8 schools in Salem School District (3,557 students total), Dr. L. F. Soule School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Dr. L. F. Soule School reports that 71% of the student body identifies as White. Other groups include 16% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 3% Asian. That is considerably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 91%.

In terms of school funding signals, Dr. L. F. Soule School logs 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 23% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Rockingham County runs at roughly 13%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Dr. L. F. Soule School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.5%, the actual is 48.0%, a residual of -0.5 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Rockingham County indicate median household earnings sit near $118,331, roughly 46% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 3% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Dr. L. F. Soule School is one of 99 public schools in Rockingham County (combined enrollment of about 41,753 students).

Arts Academy of New Hampshire Chartered Public High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Dr. L. F. Soule School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 48.9%.

The school occupies a commuter-belt site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 10%: 246 students in 2018 compared to 270 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share declined from 24% to 16%. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 10.0:1 in 2018 to 11.5:1 today.

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