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Carmel, Maine - 3 schools
An equity score of 46/100 ranks Rsu 87/Msad 23 #76 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,193 per pupil, Rsu 87/Msad 23 ranks #148 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
591
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$16,193
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rsu 87/Msad 23 operates 3 public schools serving 591 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Maine. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 1 elementary 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 $16,193 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, 50.8% state, and 15.7% 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 46/100, ranked #76 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.
a 204:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 45.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.2% White, 1.0% Hispanic or Latino, 0.3% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Caravel Middle School, with a diversity index of 17.3/100.
Suzanne M Smith Elementary School accounts for 37.6% of all Rsu 87/Msad 23 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Rsu 87/Msad 23-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.
Rsu 87/Msad 23 student-counselor ratio is 204:1 — 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 87/Msad 23 chronic absenteeism rate is 45.3% — 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.