Benner El Sch

Benner El Sch is a K-5 school of compact scale in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, run under Bellefonte Area SD, instructing 252 students in grades K through 5. By comparison, Pennsylvania's public schools average about 443 students each, so Benner El Sch sits 43% below that benchmark.

Benner El Sch is one of 6 schools operated by Bellefonte Area SD, a district that serves 2,579 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Benner El Sch records that 92% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder looks like 4% multiracial. By comparison, Centre County as a whole is about 84% White, so the school skews considerably more White than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.2:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.1:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 23% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Benner El Sch performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 67.6%, the actual is 73.9%, a residual of +6.4 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Centre County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $74,291 per year, roughly 46% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Centre County runs 33 public schools (combined enrollment of about 13,674 students), of which Benner El Sch is one.

Bellefonte El Sch is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.2 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Benner El Sch. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Benner El Sch ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 56.7%.

The campus sits in an outlying setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 9%: 231 students in 2018 compared to 252 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.