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Fairfield, Maine - 6 schools
An equity score of 49/100 ranks Rsu 49/Msad 49 #64 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,661 per pupil, Rsu 49/Msad 49 ranks #155 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,895
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$15,661
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rsu 49/Msad 49 operates 6 public schools serving 1,895 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Maine. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined, 1 elementary, 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 Somerset County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,661 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 33.5% local, 51.6% state, and 14.9% 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 49/100, ranked #64 of 131 in Maine against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (8 AP courses district-wide), a 213.6:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 32.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 91.3% White, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 0.4% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Clinton Elementary School, with a diversity index of 32.2/100.
Its largest campus is Benton Elementary School, enrolling 575 students (31% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Fairfield Primary School, at 112 students, a 5x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Benton Elementary School accounts for 30.3% of all Rsu 49/Msad 49 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Rsu 49/Msad 49-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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 49/Msad 49 school enrollment varies 5.1× across entities
Rsu 49/Msad 49 school enrollment ranges from 112 students (lowest) to 575 students (highest), a spread of 463 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.
Rsu 49/Msad 49 student-counselor ratio is 214:1 — 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 49/Msad 49 chronic absenteeism rate is 32.9% — 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.