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Van Buren, Maine - 2 schools
An equity score of 74/100 ranks Rsu 88/Msad 24 #19 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $19,468 per pupil, Rsu 88/Msad 24 ranks #80 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
261
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$19,468
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rsu 88/Msad 24 operates 2 public schools serving 261 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 Aroostook County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $19,468 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 13.8% local, 70.9% state, and 15.3% 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 74/100, ranked #19 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.
and 34.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 91.8% White, 4.2% African American, 1.6% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Van Buren Elementary School, enrolling 204 students (78% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Van Buren District Secondary Sch, at 58 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Van Buren Elementary School accounts for 77.9% of all Rsu 88/Msad 24 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Rsu 88/Msad 24 a distant remainder — means Rsu 88/Msad 24-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 88/Msad 24 has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% 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). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Rsu 88/Msad 24 chronic absenteeism rate is 34.3% — 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.