Wilkes-Barre Area HS

Wilkes-Barre Area HS operates as a high-enrollment secondary school in Plains, Pennsylvania, operated by Wilkes-Barre Area SD. Current enrollment sits at 2,569 students spanning grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 738 students per school, that is 248% larger than typical.

Across the 10 schools in Wilkes-Barre Area SD (8,277 students total), Wilkes-Barre Area HS accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Wilkes-Barre Area HS reports that the most-represented group is Hispanic (52%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 26% White, 15% Black, 7% multiracial. By comparison, Luzerne County as a whole is about 17% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Wilkes-Barre Area HS reports 110 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 23.4:1. The state averages around 12.8:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Roughly 96% of students at Wilkes-Barre Area HS qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Luzerne County (around 85%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Wilkes-Barre Area HS performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 36.4%, the actual is 32.5%, a residual of -3.8 points.

In the broader community, Luzerne County reports that the typical household earns roughly $63,691 per year, about 25% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. In all, Luzerne County runs 65 public schools (combined enrollment of about 45,209 students), of which Wilkes-Barre Area HS is one.

The closest other public school is Wilkes-Barre Area SD STEM Academy, roughly 0.0 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Wilkes-Barre Area HS at 6th of 8; the average score across the group is 44.8%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.