Bethune School District No. R- 5 operates 1 public schools serving 108 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Colorado. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 other schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. Aggregated across those campuses, enrollment totals 99 pupils using the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is geographically located in Kit Carson County County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $21,935 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, which aggregates every revenue and spending line reported under federal accounting standards. The funding mix is 34.6% local, 54.3% state, and 11.0% federal — a breakdown that matters because districts leaning heavily on local revenue are more exposed to property-tax swings, while higher federal shares typically track Title I concentration. Average teacher compensation clocks in at $101,111 per NCES F-33, a signal of the district's ability to recruit and retain staff against neighbouring districts.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 1 schools offering Advanced Placement (7 AP courses district-wide), a 99:1 student-counselor ratio that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 40.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 48.5% Hispanic or Latino, 46.5% White across the district's schools.
Bethune Public Schools accounts for 100.0% of all Bethune School District No. R- 5 student enrollment
That concentration — well above the 8.4% national median for largest-entity share — means Bethune School District No. R- 5-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: other. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Bethune School District No. R- 5 student-counselor ratio is 99:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment — districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Bethune School District No. R- 5 chronic absenteeism rate is 40.4% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason — illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.