Westside Elementary - 03

Westside Elementary - 03, an expansive elementary school in Sisseton, South Dakota, run under Sisseton School District 54-2, caters to 380 students, covering grades pre-K through 4. That puts it 86% bigger than the typical public school in South Dakota, which averages around 204 students.

Sisseton School District 54-2 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 965 students; Westside Elementary - 03 is among them.

On demographics, Westside Elementary - 03 lists that the most-represented group is Native American (52%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school reports 18% White, 16% multiracial, 12% Hispanic.

On the resource side, Westside Elementary - 03 shows 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.6:1. The state averages around 15.4:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 74% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy.

With demographic context factored in, Westside Elementary - 03 performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.7%, the actual is 35.2%, a residual of +2.5 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Roberts County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $65,130 per year, about 19% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. In all, Roberts County runs 13 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,162 students), of which Westside Elementary - 03 is one.

Nearest neighbor: Sisseton High School - 01, around 0.4 miles off. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Westside Elementary - 03 ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 33.6%.

The campus sits in a rural setting.

Five-year trend. Westside Elementary - 03's enrollment has shrank 21% since 2018, when it stood at 480 (now 380). Over the same period, the White share decreased from 25% to 18%. Class-load math has pulled in: from 13.2:1 in 2018 to 11.6:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.