Karshner Elementary

Karshner Elementary, a reasonably sized elementary campus in Puyallup, Washington, one of the schools within Puyallup School District, teaches 405 students, covering grades pre-K through 6.

Puyallup School District runs 37 schools in total, collectively educating 23,026 students. Karshner Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Karshner Elementary logs that the largest single group is White at 38%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder looks like 36% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 7% Asian, 7% Black. By comparison, Pierce County as a whole is about 64% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Karshner Elementary has 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.4:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.3:1, putting Karshner Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 54% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

After controlling for student poverty, Karshner Elementary is in the bottom 10% of Washington public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 44.1%; Karshner Elementary posts 33.1%, -10.9 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Pierce County) logs that median household income runs about $99,564, 31% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Karshner Elementary is one of 287 public schools in Pierce County (combined enrollment of about 138,462 students).

Nearest neighbor: Aylen Jr High, around 0.3 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Karshner Elementary comes 7th of 7 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 47.4%.

The school occupies a commuter-belt site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Karshner Elementary has increased 13%, going from 359 students in 2018 to 405 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share rose from 2% to 7%.

On this page, the feed for Karshner Elementary typically covers school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.