Brookdale Elementary

Brookdale Elementary is a moderately sized elementary-level community in Tacoma, Washington, overseen by Franklin Pierce School District. The school caters to 483 students in grades K through 5. By comparison, Washington's public schools average about 380 students each, so Brookdale Elementary sits 27% bigger than that benchmark.

Within Franklin Pierce School District, which oversees 14 schools and 7,187 students, Brookdale Elementary is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Brookdale Elementary reports that 32% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 27% White, 17% multiracial, 12% Black, 7% Pacific Islander. The wider county runs roughly 13% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, Brookdale Elementary has 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.3:1 average. Roughly 69% of students at Brookdale Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Pierce County (around 50%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Brookdale Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 33.8%; this one delivers 40.2%.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Pierce County indicate median household income runs about $99,564, about 31% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Pierce County runs 287 public schools (combined enrollment of about 138,462 students), of which Brookdale Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Hewins Early Learning Center, around 0.7 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Brookdale Elementary comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 35.0%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Brookdale Elementary's enrollment has expanded 4% since 2018, when it stood at 466 (now 483). Over the same period, the Hispanic share grew from 26% to 32%. Class-load math has fell: from 16.9:1 in 2018 to 15.1:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Brookdale Elementary community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.