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Zalma, Missouri - 2 schools
At $13,014 per pupil, Zalma R-V ranks #197 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
197
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$13,014
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Zalma R-V operates 2 public schools serving 197 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 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 Bollinger County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,014 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 29.0% local, 42.3% state, and 28.7% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 137.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 18.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 97.8% White, 1.7% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Zalma Elem., enrolling 101 students (58% of the district's total enrollment).
Zalma Elem. accounts for 51.3% of all Zalma R-V student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Zalma R-V a distant remainder — means Zalma R-V-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.
Zalma R-V 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.
Zalma R-V student-counselor ratio is 138:1 — 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.
Zalma R-V chronic absenteeism rate is 18.3% — 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 Zalma R-V is typically wider than the Zalma R-V-aggregate figure suggests.