Manitou Park Elementary School

Manitou Park Elementary School, a reasonably sized K-5 school in Tacoma, Washington, run under Tacoma School District, enrolls 429 students, covering grades pre-K through 5.

Manitou Park Elementary School is one of 66 schools operated by Tacoma School District, a district that serves 28,900 students overall.

Demographically, Manitou Park Elementary School reports that 27% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school records 22% Black, 18% multiracial, 17% White, 7% Pacific Islander. By comparison, Pierce County as a whole is about 13% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Manitou Park Elementary School has 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.2:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.3:1, putting Manitou Park Elementary School higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 76% of students at Manitou Park Elementary School 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 somewhat above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Manitou Park Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 29.2%; this one delivers 27.3%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Pierce County put median household earnings sit near $99,564, roughly 31% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Manitou Park Elementary School is one of 287 public schools in Pierce County (combined enrollment of about 138,462 students).

Nearest neighbor: Gray Middle School, around 0.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Manitou Park Elementary School ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 27.5%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 9%: 470 students in 2018 compared to 429 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share fell from 37% to 27%. The student-to-teacher ratio loosened from 15.6:1 in 2018 to 19.2:1 today.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.