Chester H Thompson Elementary

Chester H Thompson Elementary, a substantial elementary-level community in TACOMA, Washington, one of the schools within Bethel School District, serves 688 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 380 students per school, that is 81% bigger than typical.

Chester H Thompson Elementary is one of 39 schools operated by Bethel School District, a district that works with 21,732 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Chester H Thompson Elementary logs that the most-represented group is Hispanic (49%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest comes out to 20% White, 14% multiracial, 7% Pacific Islander, 7% Black. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 13%.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.6:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 17.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 67% of students at Chester H Thompson Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is north of Pierce County's rate of about 50%.

With demographic context factored in, Chester H Thompson Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 35.1%, the actual is 38.7%, a residual of +3.5 points.

Around the school, Pierce County reports that median household income runs about $99,564, roughly 31% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Pierce County's 287 public schools (combined enrollment of about 138,462 students), Chester H Thompson Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Thompson Preschool, roughly 0.1 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Chester H Thompson Elementary comes 3rd of 5 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 38.9%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 11%: 621 students in 2018 compared to 688 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 35% to 49%.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.