Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
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Dexter, Maine - 2 schools
An equity score of 81/100 ranks Msad 46 #4 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $19,800 per pupil, Msad 46 ranks #74 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
838
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,800
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Msad 46 operates 2 public schools serving 838 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Maine. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high 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 Penobscot County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,800 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending. See how Maine compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 19.1% local, 64.0% state, and 17.0% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 81/100, ranked #4 of 131 in Maine against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 2 schools offering Advanced Placement (1 AP courses district-wide), a 402.5:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 25.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.7% White, 1.7% African American, 1.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Ridge View Community School, enrolling 528 students (66% of the district's total enrollment).
Ridge View Community School accounts for 63.0% of all Msad 46 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Msad 46 a distant remainder — means Msad 46-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.
Msad 46 has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.3% 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.
Msad 46 student-counselor ratio is 403:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Msad 46 chronic absenteeism rate is 25.1% — 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 Msad 46 is typically wider than the Msad 46-aggregate figure suggests.