Enrollment
397
Maine · 2024-25 NCES data
Elementary school (grades K-5) · Damariscotta, ME
Great Salt Bay Community School
Federal NCES profile for Great Salt Bay Community School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 45/100.
2024-25 NCES dataElementary school (grades K-5)NCES 230616000916
👥 S:T ratio 57
🌟 Gifted program 70
🎓 Counselors 21
📋 Attendance 32
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Great Salt Bay Community School earns 45/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes near the Maine median.
- 45
- Resource Index · Typical
- 10.7:1
- students per teacher
- 30.5%
- free-lunch eligible
- 397
- students enrolled
Great Salt Bay Community School has class sizes near the Maine median. Computed live against every Maine school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Great Salt Bay Csd · Maine
NCES ID 230616000916 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
37.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
10.7:1
vs 11.1:1 Maine avg
-4% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
30.5%
vs 34.0% Maine avg
-10% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Great Salt Bay Community School compares with Maine and U.S. medians
What stands out at Great Salt Bay Community School
Great Salt Bay Community School is a mid-sized elementary school in Damariscotta, Maine, enrolling 397 students.
At 10.7:1, its student-teacher ratio sits close to the Maine median, within a few percentage points of the 11.1:1 state norm, neither notably crowded nor notably small.
Its free-meal eligibility rate of 30.5% lands close to the Maine typical range, neither a high- nor low-need campus by this measure.
Enrollment of 397 puts it in the larger third of Maine schools by headcount.
Its Resource Investment Index sits near the middle of the pack among 569 scored Maine schools.
Against 143 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks mid-pack at #69.
Its student body is predominantly White (91% of enrollment) (diversity index 17/100).
Counselor availability sits well past the ASCA benchmark, roughly 397 students sharing each counselor, though short of the most stretched campuses.
Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 27.2% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).
Great Salt Bay Csd operates only this one school, so Great Salt Bay Community School 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 Great Salt Bay Community School compares
Great Salt Bay Community School on the metrics families compare, against Maine and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Maine | Maine avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 10.7:1 | ▼ 4% | 11.1:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 30.5% | ▼ 10% | 34.0% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 397 | top 23% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
10.7:1
Leaner classes than 85% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
397
Bigger than 47% of US schools by enrollment, mid-sized for the country.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
30.5%
free-lunch eligible
- 10% below the Maine average of 34.0%
Below the 40% Title I threshold; federal aid targets individual qualifying students rather than schoolwide programs.
Staffing depth
10.7:1
students per teacher
- 4% below state mean
Top 46% in Maine - lower ratio than 54% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
27.2%
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
$17,138
per pupil, district-wide
- below Maine avg of $20,083
Close to the U.S. public-school average per-pupil spend.
Support staff
Counselors1.0 FTE
Per 397 students, the combined health-and-guidance staffing load for this school.
Discipline context
9
in-school suspensions + 5 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 2.3 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 3.5 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Overview
- Common Core of Data (June 2026): enrollment, staffing, and the student-teacher ratio above.
- Civil Rights Data Collection: discipline counts and program access (AP, gifted, special education).
- F-33 School District Finance Survey: the district-wide per-pupil spending figures below.
Three separate federal collections, each on its own reporting cadence - which is why this school's numbers line up on a consistent basis against every other school and state on this site, rather than mixing figures pulled from different survey years.
Student demographics
White 91.2%
Hispanic or Latino 4.3%
Two or More 3.0%
African American 0.8%
Asian 0.8%
Largest group: White at 91.2% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 16.5/100
Simpson diversity index - at 16.5, Great Salt Bay Community School is less mixed than the Maine school average of 20.6.
Programs
Gifted & talented Yes
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Great Salt Bay Csd, which includes Great Salt Bay Community School.
$17,138
Per student
-15%
vs Maine
Avg $20,083
+3%
vs U.S.
Avg $16,593
Revenue mix
Local 72.7%
State 20.6%
Federal 6.7%
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 elementary 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 (~397 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~10.7:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Great Salt Bay Community School's federal record.
- Compare Great Salt Bay Community School against another school. Compare schools
- Great Salt Bay Csd'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 Great Salt Bay Community School
How many students attend Great Salt Bay Community School?
Great Salt Bay Community School has 397 students enrolled. It is an elementary school in Damariscotta, ME.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Great Salt Bay Community School?
The student-teacher ratio at Great Salt Bay Community School is 10.7:1, which is 4% lower than the Maine average of 11.1:1 and 32% lower than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Great Salt Bay Community School?
30.5% of students at Great Salt Bay Community School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Maine average of 34.0%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Great Salt Bay Community School?
The largest demographic group at Great Salt Bay Community School is White at 91.2% of enrollment, in Damariscotta, ME.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Great Salt Bay Community School?
Great Salt Bay Community School has a Resource Investment Index of 45/100 (typical reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, counselor availability, attendance rates. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
Is Great Salt Bay Community School a good school?
Great Salt Bay Community School earns 45/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes near the Maine median. This is a resource snapshot, not an academic rating; see the Resource Investment Index question above for what the number does and doesn't measure.
What other schools are in Great Salt Bay Csd?
None reported; Great Salt Bay Csd operates only Great Salt Bay Community School 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 June 2026.