Herma S. Simmons Elementary School

Herma S. Simmons Elementary School operates as a large elementary campus in CLAYTON, New Jersey, overseen by Clayton Public School District. Current enrollment sits at 715 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 77% larger than the state mean of about 405.

Clayton Public School District runs 3 schools in total, collectively educating 1,445 students. Herma S. Simmons Elementary School is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Herma S. Simmons Elementary School shows that 45% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest comes out to 24% Black, 20% Hispanic, 10% multiracial. By comparison, Gloucester County as a whole is about 76% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school reports having 58 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.4:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 11.4:1 average. Around 58% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is north of Gloucester County's rate of about 32%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Herma S. Simmons Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 34.5%, the actual is 31.4%, a residual of -3.2 points.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Gloucester County indicate median household earnings sit near $105,115, roughly 37% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Herma S. Simmons Elementary School is one of 86 public schools in Gloucester County (combined enrollment of about 46,080 students).

The closest other public school is Clayton High School, roughly 1.1 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Herma S. Simmons Elementary School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 33.8%.

Herma S. Simmons Elementary School operates from an outer-ring location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 7%: 667 students in 2018 compared to 715 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share declined from 53% to 45%.

Inside the community feed, members of the Herma S. Simmons Elementary School community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.