Opal Elementary - 15

As a rural-scale elementary school in Opal, South Dakota, Opal Elementary - 15 teaches 13 students from grades K through 8, one of the schools within Meade School District 46-1. Compared to the state average of about 204 students per school, that is 94% leaner than typical.

Meade School District 46-1 comprises 11 schools with combined enrollment of 3,047 students; Opal Elementary - 15 is among them.

On the student-mix side, Opal Elementary - 15 shows that 100% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. That is considerably more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 86%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 1 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 9.2:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.4:1, putting Opal Elementary - 15 tighter than the state norm the norm. About 23% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Meade County runs at roughly 32%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

In the area at large, census data for Meade County shows the typical household earns roughly $74,790 per year, about 28% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 4%. Across Meade County's 16 public schools (combined enrollment of about 3,395 students), Opal Elementary - 15 is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Maurine Elementary - 04, roughly 11.4 miles away.

Geographically, the school is in a countryside area.

Looking at the recent track record. Opal Elementary - 15's enrollment has contracted 24% since 2018, when it stood at 17 (now 13). Class-load math has loosened: from 6.7:1 in 2018 to 9.2:1 in 2025.

On the community side, the feed for Opal Elementary - 15 typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.