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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Old Town, Maine - 5 schools
An equity score of 63/100 ranks Rsu 34 #38 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,757 per pupil, Rsu 34 ranks #132 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,434
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$16,757
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rsu 34 operates 5 public schools serving 1,434 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Maine. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined, 1 high, 1 middle 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 $16,757 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending. See how Maine compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 37.9% local, 51.7% state, and 10.4% 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 63/100, ranked #38 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 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (8 AP courses district-wide), a 247:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 43.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 85.4% White, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, 1.4% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Leonard Middle School, with a diversity index of 27.8/100.
Its largest campus is Old Town High School, enrolling 531 students (38% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Alton Elementary School, at 40 students, a 13x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Old Town High School accounts for 37.0% of all Rsu 34 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Rsu 34-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. 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.
Rsu 34 school enrollment varies 13× across entities
Rsu 34 school enrollment ranges from 40 students (lowest) to 531 students (highest), a spread of 491 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Rsu 34 student-counselor ratio is 247:1 — 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.
Rsu 34 chronic absenteeism rate is 43.8% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.