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Cairnbrook, Pennsylvania - 2 schools
An equity score of 93/100 ranks Shade-Central City Sd #5 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $21,865 per pupil, Shade-Central City Sd ranks #65 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
330
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$21,865
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Shade-Central City Sd operates 2 public schools serving 330 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 combined 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 $21,865 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 68 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 27.8% local, 63.1% state, and 9.1% 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 93/100, ranked #5 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, 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 123:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 22.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 98.3% White, 0.4% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Cairnbrook El Sch, enrolling 180 students (59% of the district's total enrollment).
Cairnbrook El Sch accounts for 54.5% of all Shade-Central City Sd student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Shade-Central City Sd a distant remainder — means Shade-Central City Sd-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.
Shade-Central City Sd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 79.9% 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 — including this one — 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.
Shade-Central City Sd student-counselor ratio is 123:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Shade-Central City Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 22.0% — 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 Shade-Central City Sd is typically wider than the Shade-Central City Sd-aggregate figure suggests.