Martin Sortun Elementary School

Located at 12711 SE 248th St, in Kent, Washington, Martin Sortun Elementary School is a middle-of-the-pack elementary school that teaches 450 students (grades pre-K through 5), part of Kent School District.

Kent School District comprises 44 schools with combined enrollment of 25,358 students; Martin Sortun Elementary School is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Martin Sortun Elementary School logs that the most-represented group is Asian (36%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 22% White, 19% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 10% Black. By comparison, King County as a whole is about 21% Asian, so the school skews meaningfully more Asian than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.2:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.3:1, putting Martin Sortun Elementary School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 51% of students at Martin Sortun Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is above King County's rate of about 38%.

With demographic context factored in, Martin Sortun Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 45.9%; this one delivers 53.0%.

Around the school, census data for King County shows median household earnings sit near $124,746, 57% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 5%. Across King County's 544 public schools (combined enrollment of about 278,492 students), Martin Sortun Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Meridian Elementary School, roughly 0.9 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Martin Sortun Elementary School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Martin Sortun Elementary School at 2nd of 7; the average score across the group is 34.6%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Martin Sortun Elementary School has fell 32%, going from 658 students in 2018 to 450 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 14% to 10% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 19.6:1 in 2018 to 16.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.