Sunset Elementary

Sunset Elementary is a K-5 school of large scale in AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Washington, part of Cheney School District, caters to 634 students in grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 380 students per school, that is 67% bigger than typical.

Sunset Elementary is one of 12 schools operated by Cheney School District, a district that teaches 5,662 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Sunset Elementary shows that the largest single group is White at 48%, but no single group is in the majority; the rest is composed of 19% Hispanic, 15% Pacific Islander, 10% multiracial, 3% Asian. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 83%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Sunset Elementary has 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.3:1 average. An estimated 78% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Spokane County runs at roughly 52%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Sunset Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 28.0%, the actual is 20.8%, a residual of -7.3 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Spokane County indicate median household income runs about $78,582, about 33% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Spokane County's 187 public schools (combined enrollment of about 76,588 students), Sunset Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Michael Anderson Elementary School, roughly 3.4 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 3 other public schools cluster around Sunset Elementary. On composite proficiency, Sunset Elementary comes 9th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 46.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. Sunset Elementary's enrollment has edged up 38% since 2018, when it stood at 460 (now 634). The White share of enrollment contracted from 66% to 48% over that span.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.