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Lesterville, Missouri - 3 schools
At $19,223 per pupil, Lesterville R-Iv ranks #31 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
197
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$19,223
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Lesterville R-Iv operates 3 public schools serving 197 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Reynolds County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,223 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 55 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 55.6% local, 22.0% state, and 22.5% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 57.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 16.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 86.1% White, 5.7% African American, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Alternative School, with a diversity index of 45.3/100.
Its largest campus is Lesterville High School, enrolling 70 students (40% of the district's total enrollment).
Lesterville High School accounts for 35.5% of all Lesterville R-Iv student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Lesterville R-Iv-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. 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.
Lesterville R-Iv school enrollment varies 2.0× across entities
Lesterville R-Iv school enrollment ranges from 35 students (lowest) to 70 students (highest), a spread of 35 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Lesterville R-Iv has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.1% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Lesterville R-Iv student-counselor ratio is 58:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Lesterville R-Iv chronic absenteeism rate is 16.4% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Lesterville R-Iv is typically wider than the Lesterville R-Iv-aggregate figure suggests.