Marion Elementary School

Marion Elementary School operates as a compact primary school in Marion, North Carolina, operated by McDowell County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 333 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 29% below the state mean of about 467.

Across the 16 schools in McDowell County Schools (5,712 students total), Marion Elementary School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Marion Elementary School shows that the largest single group is White, at 67% of enrollment. Other groups include 20% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 4% Black. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 88%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.6:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 99% of students at Marion Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Marion Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.6%, the actual is 60.5%, a residual of +11.9 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for McDowell County indicate the typical household earns roughly $57,168 per year, roughly 18% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, McDowell County runs 16 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,712 students), of which Marion Elementary School is one.

Nearest neighbor: East McDowell Middle School, around 0.7 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Marion Elementary School ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 56.7%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 14%: 389 students in 2018 compared to 333 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Marion Elementary School community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.