CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of the compact elementary campuss in Mandan, North Dakota, run under MANDAN 1, with 126 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 41% leaner than the typical public school in North Dakota, which averages around 212 students.

Across the 12 schools in MANDAN 1 (4,451 students total), CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL logs that the largest single group is White, at 60% of enrollment. Beyond that, the school shows 15% Hispanic, 13% Native American, 6% multiracial, 4% Black. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 87%.

On the resource side, CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL shows 13 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 9.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 11.4:1 average. An estimated 75% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Morton County runs at roughly 31%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

Across the wider county, census data for Morton County shows the typical household earns roughly $79,382 per year, roughly 29% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Across Morton County's 23 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,454 students), CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

MANDAN K-8 ELEMENTARY VIRTUAL ACADEMY is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 14%: 147 students in 2018 compared to 126 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment increased from 10% to 15% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 11.3:1 in 2018 to 9.7:1 in 2025.

On allk12, members of the CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.