Wilson Elementary School

Located at 71 ORTON RD, in WEST CALDWELL, New Jersey, Wilson Elementary School is an intimate K-5 school that instructs 214 students (grades K through 5), one of the schools within Caldwell-West School District. That puts it 47% smaller than the typical public school in New Jersey, which averages around 405 students.

Wilson Elementary School is one of 7 schools operated by Caldwell-West School District, a district that teaches 2,520 students overall.

Demographically, Wilson Elementary School reports that the largest single group is White, at 68% of enrollment. The remainder consists of 19% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 3% Asian, 3% Black. By comparison, Essex County as a whole is about 30% White, so the school skews meaningfully more White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Wilson Elementary School reports 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 10.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 11.4:1 average. Roughly 9% of students at Wilson Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Essex County (around 54%), the school's rate is south of typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Wilson Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 61.0%; this one delivers 56.9%.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Essex County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $80,789 per year, about 39% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, Essex County runs 249 public schools (combined enrollment of about 145,473 students), of which Wilson Elementary School is one.

James Caldwell High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Wilson Elementary School comes 4th of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 55.9%.

The school occupies a residential site.

Five-year trend. Wilson Elementary School's enrollment has decreased 11% since 2018, when it stood at 240 (now 214). White enrollment moved from 85% to 68% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 12.7:1 in 2018 to 10.7:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.