Enrollment
110
Maine · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Cherryfield, ME
Cherryfield Elementary
Federal NCES profile for Cherryfield Elementary, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 38/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 231481400461
👥 S:T ratio 51
🌟 Gifted program 30
🎓 Counselors 45
📋 Attendance 25
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Cherryfield Elementary earns 38/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes larger than 74% of Maine schools.
- 38
- Resource Index · Typical
- 12.2:1
- large classes for Maine
- 38.9%
- free-lunch eligible
- 110
- students enrolled
Cherryfield Elementary has class sizes larger than 74% of Maine schools. Computed live against every Maine school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Cherryfield Public Schools · Maine
NCES ID 231481400461 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
9.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
12.2:1
vs 11.1:1 Maine avg
+10% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
38.9%
vs 34.0% Maine avg
+14% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Cherryfield Elementary compares with Maine and U.S. medians
What stands out at Cherryfield Elementary
Small campus without a staffing-size advantage
Cherryfield Elementary enrolls fewer students than most Maine schools, yet its student-teacher ratio is still on the heavier side of the state distribution. Small enrollment therefore does not translate into more teacher capacity per student here. That makes staffing capacity, rather than campus scale alone, the useful interpretation. The counselor, attendance, and program indicators below help show whether the pressure is narrow or part of a broader resource constraint.
The composite reveals a resource-side weakness
Cherryfield Elementary's free-meal eligibility sits closer to the broad Maine middle than to an extreme, but its Resource Investment Index falls near the lower end of scored schools. That makes the composite itself the notable signal rather than student need. Inspecting the underlying factors matters here: a low score can result from thin counselor coverage, limited gifted access, attendance pressure, or heavier classroom staffing, and those are different operational problems.
Attendance is the dominant support signal
Cherryfield Elementary's 30.0% chronic-absence rate is more consequential than a generic staffing label: at least one quarter of students missed 10% or more of school days in the 2021-22 collection. That level can affect instruction, counseling demand, and continuity even when other reported resources look ordinary. The dataset records the scale of absence but not its causes, so it should prompt a current-year question rather than a conclusion about school management.
Cherryfield Elementary is a mid-sized combined-grade school in Cherryfield, Maine, enrolling 110 students.
Class loads run somewhat heavier than typical: 12.2:1 puts it in the larger third of Maine schools by student-teacher ratio.
Economic need runs somewhat above the state's typical profile, with 38.9% of students eligible for free meals.
Enrollment of 110 puts it in the smaller third of Maine schools by headcount.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the lower third of 569 scored Maine schools.
Against 71 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks mid-pack at #51.
Its student body is predominantly White (93% of enrollment) (diversity index 14/100).
Counselor coverage runs a bit thin, about 275 students per counselor, somewhat past the ASCA-recommended 250:1 benchmark.
Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 30.0% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).
Cherryfield Public Schools operates only this one school, so Cherryfield Elementary has no district-mates to compare against locally.
Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25
How Cherryfield Elementary compares
Cherryfield Elementary on the metrics families compare, against Maine and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Maine | Maine avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 12.2:1 | ▲ 10% | 11.1:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 38.9% | ▲ 14% | 34.0% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 110 | top 81% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
12.2:1
Leaner classes than 74% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
110
Bigger than 11% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
38.9%
free-lunch eligible
- 14% above the Maine average of 34.0%
Below the 40% Title I threshold; federal aid targets individual qualifying students rather than schoolwide programs.
Staffing depth
12.2:1
students per teacher
- 10% above state mean
Top 74% in Maine - lower ratio than 26% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
30.0%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
At or above 20%, the commonly used threshold for "high" chronic absenteeism, signaling significant barriers to regular attendance.
Funding equity
$22,280
per pupil, district-wide
- above Maine avg of $20,083
Well above the U.S. public-school average, reflecting substantially higher local or state investment per enrolled student.
Support staff
Counselors0.4 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
3
in-school suspensions + 1 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 2.7 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 3.6 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 92.7%
Hispanic or Latino 6.4%
Two or More 0.9%
Largest group: White at 92.7% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 13.6/100
Simpson diversity index - at 13.6, Cherryfield Elementary is less mixed than the Maine school average of 20.6.
Programs
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Cherryfield Public Schools, which includes Cherryfield Elementary.
$22,280
Per student
+11%
vs Maine
Avg $20,083
+34%
vs U.S.
Avg $16,593
Revenue mix
Local 60.3%
State 28.4%
Federal 11.2%
Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2021-22 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.
Similar other schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Maine, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~110 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~12.2:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Cherryfield Elementary's federal record.
- Compare Cherryfield Elementary against another school. Compare schools
- Cherryfield Public Schools's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently asked questions about Cherryfield Elementary
How many students attend Cherryfield Elementary?
Cherryfield Elementary has 110 students enrolled. It is a public school in Cherryfield, ME.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Cherryfield Elementary?
The student-teacher ratio at Cherryfield Elementary is 12.2:1, which is 10% higher than the Maine average of 11.1:1 and 22% lower than the national average of 15.7:1.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Cherryfield Elementary?
38.9% of students at Cherryfield Elementary are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Maine average of 34.0%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Cherryfield Elementary?
The largest demographic group at Cherryfield Elementary is White at 92.7% of enrollment, in Cherryfield, ME.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Cherryfield Elementary?
Cherryfield Elementary has a Resource Investment Index of 38/100 (typical reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, counselor availability, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
What other schools are in Cherryfield Public Schools?
None reported; Cherryfield Public Schools operates only Cherryfield Elementary as a public school district in NCES's records.
Related tools
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of July 2026.