Custer Elementary - 02

As a reasonably sized elementary school in Custer, South Dakota, Custer Elementary - 02 hosts 269 students from grades pre-K through 6, operated by Custer School District 16-1. Enrollment runs roughly 32% above the state mean of about 204.

Within Custer School District 16-1, which oversees 6 schools and 887 students, Custer Elementary - 02 is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Custer Elementary - 02 shows that 84% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest reads as 9% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 2% Native American.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.4:1 average. About 34% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

After controlling for student poverty, Custer Elementary - 02 sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 49.0%; this one delivers 57.4%.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Custer County indicate median household earnings sit near $84,112, about 32% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Across Custer County's 8 public schools (combined enrollment of about 903 students), Custer Elementary - 02 is one campus in the mix.

Custer Jr. High - 05 is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Custer Elementary - 02 at 2nd of 6; the average score across the group is 46.9%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Custer Elementary - 02's enrollment has declined 22% since 2018, when it stood at 346 (now 269). The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 13.3:1 in 2018 to 10.3:1 today.

On the community side, members of the Custer Elementary - 02 community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.