PALO ALTO MIDDLE

PALO ALTO MIDDLE is an intermediate school of middle-of-the-pack scale in KILLEEN, Texas, part of KILLEEN ISD, educateing 781 students in grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 21% bigger than the state mean of about 643.

KILLEEN ISD runs 55 schools in total, collectively educating 42,883 students. PALO ALTO MIDDLE is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, PALO ALTO MIDDLE logs that the most-represented group is Black (50%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder breaks down as 31% Hispanic, 9% White, 5% multiracial, 2% Pacific Islander. The wider county runs roughly 23% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, PALO ALTO MIDDLE logs 48 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 14.4:1 average. Roughly 77% of students at PALO ALTO MIDDLE qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Bell County runs at roughly 57%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, On a poverty-adjusted basis, PALO ALTO MIDDLE sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 40.4%; actual is 25.6%, a gap of -14.8 points.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Bell County indicate median household income runs about $68,865, roughly 27% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. PALO ALTO MIDDLE is one of 130 public schools in Bell County (combined enrollment of about 71,041 students).

The closest other public school is MAXDALE EL, roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), PALO ALTO MIDDLE ranks 9th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 37.9%.

The school occupies an inner-city site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count increased 20%: 652 students in 2018 compared to 781 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 13.3:1 in 2018 to 16.3:1 today.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.