Richards Elementary School

Richards Elementary School is one of the middle-of-the-pack K-5 schools in Newport, New Hampshire, part of Newport School District, with 273 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5.

Richards Elementary School is one of 5 schools operated by Newport School District, a district that teaches 712 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Richards Elementary School records that nearly all students (94%) are White. Beyond that, the school logs 3% Hispanic, 2% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with Sullivan County as a whole.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.7:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 60% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Sullivan County runs at roughly 37%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Richards Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 24.6%; this one delivers 28.3%.

In the broader community, Sullivan County reports that median household earnings sit near $80,858, 30% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Sullivan County's 29 public schools (combined enrollment of about 4,498 students), Richards Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Newport SOAR Middle School, around 0.3 miles off. 7 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Richards Elementary School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 46.1%.

The campus sits in a low-density setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Richards Elementary School has declined 39%, going from 447 students in 2018 to 273 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 12.4:1 in 2018 to 10.7:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.