Independence El Sch

As a close-knit elementary-level community in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, Independence El Sch works with 228 students from grades K through 4, run under Hopewell Area SD. Enrollment runs roughly 49% below the state mean of about 443.

Within Hopewell Area SD, which oversees 5 schools and 2,007 students, Independence El Sch is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Independence El Sch logs that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder breaks down as 4% multiracial, 3% Black, 3% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.8:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.1:1, putting Independence El Sch higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 50% of students at Independence El Sch 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, Independence El Sch tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 56.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 67.2%.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Beaver County indicate the typical household earns roughly $71,089 per year, about 29% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Beaver County runs 52 public schools (combined enrollment of about 31,222 students), of which Independence El Sch is one.

Hopewell El Sch is the nearest neighboring public school, about 3.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 5 other public schools cluster around Independence El Sch. On composite proficiency, Independence El Sch comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 51.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a rural area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Independence El Sch's enrollment has stayed largely flat since 2018, when it stood at 227 (now 228). The White share of enrollment contracted from 97% to 91% over that span.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.