Merrill Elementary

Merrill Elementary is an elementary school of cozy scale in Beloit, Wisconsin, operated by Beloit School District, instructing 224 students in grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 31% leaner than the state mean of about 323.

Beloit School District comprises 12 schools with combined enrollment of 4,958 students; Merrill Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, Merrill Elementary lists that 55% of the student body identifies as Black. The remainder comes out to 21% Hispanic, 12% White, 11% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 5%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Merrill Elementary lists 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 10.9:1. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 84% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Rock County runs at roughly 47%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), On a poverty-adjusted basis, Merrill Elementary sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 26.2%; actual is 8.8%, a gap of -17.4 points.

Across the wider county, Rock County reports that median household earnings sit near $75,673, 26% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Rock County's 65 public schools (combined enrollment of about 25,542 students), Merrill Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: The Lincoln Academy, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Merrill Elementary at 8th of 8; the average score across the group is 24.4%.

The school occupies an inner-city site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Merrill Elementary has contracted 10%, going from 249 students in 2018 to 224 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment ticked up from 40% to 55% over that span.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Merrill Elementary typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.