Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03

Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 operates as a mid-sized elementary-level community in Deadwood, South Dakota, operated by Lead-Deadwood School District 40-1. Current enrollment sits at 243 students spanning grades K through 5.

Within Lead-Deadwood School District 40-1, which oversees 4 schools and 647 students, Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 records that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest reads as 6% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 has 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 9.0:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.4:1, putting Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 21% of students at Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 54.3%; this one delivers 41.1%.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Lawrence County) records that median household income runs about $73,384, roughly 33% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Across Lawrence County's 14 public schools (combined enrollment of about 3,183 students), Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Lead-Deadwood Middle School - 02, roughly 2.9 miles away. Within five miles, there are 2 other public schools. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Lead-Deadwood Elementary - 03 ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 55.5%.

The school occupies a town-based site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 23%: 317 students in 2018 compared to 243 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share grew from 86% to 91%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 10.4:1 in 2018 to 9.0:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.