Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05

Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05, a rural-scale primary school in Garden City, South Dakota, one of the schools within Clark School District 12-2, serves 31 students, covering grades K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 204 students per school, that is 85% leaner than typical.

Across the 6 schools in Clark School District 12-2 (497 students total), Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 lists that nearly all students (100%) are White. That is considerably more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 91%.

On the income-and-resources front, Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 lists 2 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 15.5:1. The state averages about 15.4:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 90% of students at Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Clark County runs at roughly 36%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 26.0%, the actual is 13.1%, a residual of -12.9 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Clark County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $70,726 per year, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Clark County's 11 public schools (combined enrollment of about 820 students), Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 is one campus in the mix.

Clark Elementary - 02 is the nearest neighboring public school, about 5.6 miles from this campus. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 at 6th of 6; the average score across the group is 33.4%.

The school occupies a countryside site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 has edged up 7%, going from 29 students in 2018 to 31 in 2025. Class-load math has loosened: from 14.5:1 in 2018 to 15.5:1 in 2025.

On the community side, the feed for Hillcrest Colony Elementary - 05 typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.