SOUTH HILL SCHOOL

SOUTH HILL SCHOOL is one of the modestly sized primary schools in ITHACA, New York, one of the schools within ITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, with 363 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5.

ITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT comprises 12 schools with combined enrollment of 4,988 students; SOUTH HILL SCHOOL is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, SOUTH HILL SCHOOL records that the largest single group is White, at 68% of enrollment. The remainder consists of 14% multiracial, 7% Hispanic, 7% Asian, 3% Black.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 12.8:1 average. An estimated 24% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is below Tompkins County's rate of about 36%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SOUTH HILL SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 66.1%, the actual is 64.6%, a residual of -1.5 points.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Tompkins County put the typical household earns roughly $74,024 per year, about 59% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Tompkins County's 33 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,392 students), SOUTH HILL SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: NEW ROOTS CHARTER SCHOOL, around 0.5 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts SOUTH HILL SCHOOL at 3rd of 9; the average score across the group is 57.6%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Five-year trend. SOUTH HILL SCHOOL's enrollment has shrank 13% since 2018, when it stood at 415 (now 363). The White share of enrollment decreased from 76% to 68% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 12.3:1 in 2018 to 10.4:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for SOUTH HILL SCHOOL typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.