C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary

Set in New Baltimore, Virginia, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary is a moderately sized elementary school, one of the schools within Fauquier County Public Schools. It serves 525 students across grades pre-K through 5.

Fauquier County Public Schools comprises 18 schools with combined enrollment of 10,861 students; C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary is among them.

Demographically, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary logs that the largest single group is White, at 71% of enrollment; the rest is composed of 13% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 4% Black, 4% Asian. By comparison, Fauquier County as a whole is about 80% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary has 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.9:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.8:1, putting C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 18% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Fauquier County runs at roughly 33%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 83.1% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 79.5%.

Across the wider county, census data for Fauquier County shows median household income runs about $130,189, roughly 42% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Across Fauquier County's 22 public schools (combined enrollment of about 10,861 students), C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Auburn Middle, around 2.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 7 other public schools cluster around C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary. On composite proficiency, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 81.5%.

Geographically, the school is in a rural area.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 10%: 476 students in 2018 compared to 525 in 2025. The White share of enrollment declined from 79% to 71% over that span.

On this page, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.