Lee M. Waid Elementary

Lee M. Waid Elementary, a low-enrollment elementary school in Rocky Mount, Virginia, part of Franklin County Public Schools, caters to 386 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 23% below the state mean of about 499.

Franklin County Public Schools comprises 14 schools with combined enrollment of 6,540 students; Lee M. Waid Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Lee M. Waid Elementary records that the most-represented group is White (53%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school reports 17% multiracial, 15% Black, 13% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 86% White, putting the school's mix visibly less White than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 85% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Lee M. Waid Elementary sits in the top 10% of Virginia schools after the BeatsExpectations adjustment. Predicted proficiency for the school's FRL share is roughly 64.8%; actual is 83.5%, +18.7 points clear of the demographic baseline.

In the surrounding community, census data for Franklin County shows median household income runs about $68,849, roughly 25% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Franklin County runs 14 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,540 students), of which Lee M. Waid Elementary is one.

Franklin County High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Lee M. Waid Elementary comes 1st of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 70.1%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count stayed largely flat: 384 students in 2018 compared to 386 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 58% to 53%. Class-load math has tightened: from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 10.7:1 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.