Gaenslen Elementary

Set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gaenslen Elementary is a sprawling K-5 school, part of Milwaukee School District. It educates 641 students across grades pre-K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 98% bigger than the state mean of about 323.

Milwaukee School District runs 155 schools in total, collectively educating 65,835 students. Gaenslen Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Gaenslen Elementary lists that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (81%). The remainder looks like 9% Hispanic, 6% multiracial, 3% White. The wider county runs roughly 26% Black, putting the school's mix noticeably more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Gaenslen Elementary logs 55 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.7:1. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 88% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Milwaukee County (around 64%), the school's rate is north of typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Gaenslen Elementary is in the bottom 10% of Wisconsin public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 23.5%; Gaenslen Elementary posts 6.7%, -16.8 points below that line.

Around the school, census data for Milwaukee County shows median household earnings sit near $64,435, about 35% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. In all, Milwaukee County runs 284 public schools (combined enrollment of about 122,496 students), of which Gaenslen Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Fratney Elementary, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Gaenslen Elementary ranks 7th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 28.2%.

The school occupies a high-density site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Gaenslen Elementary's enrollment has fell 16% since 2018, when it stood at 765 (now 641). Class-load math has fell: from 19.2:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.