Hermosa Elementary - 04

Hermosa Elementary - 04 is one of the reasonably sized primary schools in Hermosa, South Dakota, overseen by Custer School District 16-1, with 181 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 6.

Custer School District 16-1 comprises 6 schools with combined enrollment of 887 students; Hermosa Elementary - 04 is among them.

Looking at the student body, Hermosa Elementary - 04 records that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Other groups include 4% Hispanic, 3% multiracial. Compared to Custer County overall, the school's racial mix sits in roughly the same range.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.6:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.4:1 average. About 31% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Hermosa Elementary - 04 tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 50.3% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 37.7%.

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 census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Custer County's 8 public schools (combined enrollment of about 903 students), Hermosa Elementary - 04 is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Hermosa Middle School - 07, roughly 0.0 miles away. On composite proficiency, Hermosa Elementary - 04 comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 41.5%.

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

Looking at the recent track record. Hermosa Elementary - 04's enrollment has declined 11% since 2018, when it stood at 204 (now 181). Over the same period, the White share edged up from 81% to 91%.

On this page, members of the Hermosa Elementary - 04 community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.