VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a low-enrollment elementary-level community in SYRACUSE, New York, part of SYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT. The school teaches 346 students in grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, New York's public schools average about 443 students each, so VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL sits 22% below that benchmark.

Within SYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, which oversees 31 schools and 18,608 students, VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL records that the largest single group is Black, at 76% of enrollment. Beyond that, the school logs 9% multiracial, 6% White, 6% Hispanic, 2% Native American. By comparison, Onondaga County as a whole is about 11% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.2:1. The state averages about 12.8:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 78% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is north of Onondaga County's rate of about 49%.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 46.2%; actual is 16.8%, a gap of -29.4 points.

In the area at large, census data for Onondaga County shows median household income runs about $76,945, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. In all, Onondaga County runs 123 public schools (combined enrollment of about 67,044 students), of which VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one.

SOUTHSIDE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), VAN DUYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 21.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 22%: 445 students in 2018 compared to 346 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 64% to 76% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 15.0:1 in 2018 to 12.2:1 today.

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