James Buchanan MS

Located at 5191 Fort Loudon Rd, in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, James Buchanan MS is an average-sized middle-grades school that hosts 535 students (grades 6 through 8), operated by Tuscarora SD.

Tuscarora SD runs 6 schools in total, collectively educating 2,182 students. James Buchanan MS is one of those campuses.

On demographics, James Buchanan MS shows that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Other groups include 4% Hispanic, 3% multiracial.

On the income-and-resources front, The school reports having 42 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 104% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Franklin County (around 69%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, James Buchanan MS sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 33.2%; this one delivers 40.3%.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Franklin County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $77,003 per year, about 25% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Franklin County runs 41 public schools (combined enrollment of about 21,432 students), of which James Buchanan MS is one.

Nearest neighbor: James Buchanan HS, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around James Buchanan MS. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts James Buchanan MS at 8th of 8; the average score across the group is 54.7%.

James Buchanan MS operates from an outlying location.

Five-year trend. James Buchanan MS's enrollment has edged down 6% since 2018, when it stood at 568 (now 535). Class-load math has narrowed: from 15.2:1 in 2018 to 12.9:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the feed for James Buchanan MS typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.