Ladysmith Elementary

Ladysmith Elementary is a K-5 school of reasonably sized scale in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, part of Ladysmith School District, teacheing 328 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Ladysmith School District runs 3 schools in total, collectively educating 727 students. Ladysmith Elementary is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Ladysmith Elementary shows that 88% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder consists of 6% multiracial, 3% Hispanic.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.7:1 average. Around 66% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, Ladysmith Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 36.9%, the actual is 37.4%, a residual of +0.5 points.

In the area at large, Rusk County reports that the typical household earns roughly $59,944 per year, about 17% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Across Rusk County's 9 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,547 students), Ladysmith Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Ladysmith High, around 1.0 miles off. 5 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Ladysmith Elementary at 8th of 9; the average score across the group is 47.6%.

Geographically, the school is in an outlying area.

Looking at the recent track record. Ladysmith Elementary's enrollment has decreased 3% since 2018, when it stood at 338 (now 328). The White share of enrollment ticked down from 92% to 88% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 12.6:1 in 2018 to 11.3:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.