Enrollment
161
Maine · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Northeast Harbor, ME
Mt Desert Elementary School
Federal NCES profile for Mt Desert Elementary School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 61/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 230849000232
👥 S:T ratio 71
🌟 Gifted program 70
📋 Attendance 41
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Mt Desert Elementary School earns 61/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 91% of Maine schools.
- 61
- Resource Index · Higher
- 7.3:1
- small classes for Maine
- 10.5%
- free-lunch eligible
- 161
- students enrolled
Mt Desert Elementary School has class sizes smaller than 91% of Maine schools. Computed live against every Maine school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Mount Desert Public Schools · Maine
NCES ID 230849000232 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
22.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
7.3:1
vs 11.1:1 Maine avg
-34% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
10.5%
vs 34.0% Maine avg
-69% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Mt Desert Elementary School compares with Maine and U.S. medians
What stands out at Mt Desert Elementary School
Teacher staffing is the clearest operational strength
Mt Desert Elementary School's enrollment is not at an extreme, but its student-teacher ratio is: it reports fewer students per teacher than most Maine schools. This is the most distinctive scale-adjusted signal in the federal record. It should be read as staffing capacity, not class size or an academic outcome; the page separately reports attendance, program access, demographics, and district finance so a single favorable ratio does not become an unsupported overall rating.
Lower need and stronger resource signals align
Mt Desert Elementary School reports lower free-meal eligibility than most Maine schools and an above-typical Resource Investment Index. The two measures move together, a pattern consistent with the resource advantages that often accompany a lower-need intake. That association should not be mistaken for a causal verdict about the school; it is a transparent description of how this campus sits on two independent federal-data dimensions.
A combined-grade campus has a different support burden
Mt Desert Elementary School serves a combined grade span rather than a conventional elementary, middle, or high-school band. That structure can require the same campus to cover transitions, counseling needs, and programs for students at substantially different developmental stages, so a single staffing ratio deserves more caution than it would at a narrower-grade school. Federal totals show the available people and programs, but not how those resources are divided among grade levels.
Mt Desert Elementary School is a lower-poverty, mid-sized combined-grade school in Northeast Harbor, Maine, enrolling 161 students.
Classes run notably small here: at 7.3:1, Mt Desert Elementary School is leaner than roughly 91% of Maine schools and 34% under the state's 11.1:1 norm, more adult attention per pupil than most peers.
Comparatively few students face economic hardship here, 10.5% free-meal eligibility runs 69% below the Maine average.
Enrollment of 161 puts it in the smaller third of Maine schools by headcount.
Its Resource Investment Index outscores 93% of the 569 Maine schools with a score on record, a top-tier result on this measure.
Against 53 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks in the upper tier at #9.
Its student body is predominantly White (86% of enrollment) (diversity index 25/100).
Attendance runs somewhat below the norm, with 23.6% of students chronically absent per the 2021-22 civil-rights collection.
The surrounding Mount Desert Public Schools spends $31,179 per pupil, 55% above the Maine average, a better-resourced district than most.
Mount Desert Public Schools operates only this one school, so Mt Desert Elementary 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 Mt Desert Elementary School compares
Mt Desert Elementary 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 | 7.3:1 | ▼ 34% | 11.1:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 10.5% | ▼ 69% | 34.0% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 161 | top 70% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
7.3:1
Leaner classes than 96% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
161
Bigger than 16% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
10.5%
free-lunch eligible
- 69% below the Maine average of 34.0%
Below the 40% Title I threshold, among the lower-need profiles in the state; federal aid targets individual qualifying students rather than schoolwide programs.
Staffing depth
7.3:1
students per teacher
- 34% below state mean
Top 9% in Maine - lower ratio than 91% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
23.6%
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
$31,179
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
Counselors0.0 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
4
in-school suspensions + 0 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 2.5 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 2.5 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 85.7%
Two or More 9.3%
Hispanic or Latino 5.0%
Largest group: White at 85.7% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 25.4/100
Simpson diversity index - at 25.4, Mt Desert Elementary School is more mixed than the Maine school average of 20.6.
Programs
Gifted & talented Yes
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Mount Desert Public Schools, which includes Mt Desert Elementary School.
$31,179
Per student
+55%
vs Maine
Avg $20,083
+88%
vs U.S.
Avg $16,593
Revenue mix
Local 84.4%
State 12.5%
Federal 3.0%
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 (~161 students)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Mt Desert Elementary School's federal record.
- Compare Mt Desert Elementary School against another school. Compare schools
- Mount Desert 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 Mt Desert Elementary School
How many students attend Mt Desert Elementary School?
Mt Desert Elementary School has 161 students enrolled. It is a public school in Northeast Harbor, ME.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Mt Desert Elementary School?
The student-teacher ratio at Mt Desert Elementary School is 7.3:1, which is 34% lower than the Maine average of 11.1:1 and 54% 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 Mt Desert Elementary School?
10.5% of students at Mt Desert Elementary School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Maine average of 34.0%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Mt Desert Elementary School?
The largest demographic group at Mt Desert Elementary School is White at 85.7% of enrollment, in Northeast Harbor, ME.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Mt Desert Elementary School?
Mt Desert Elementary School has a Resource Investment Index of 61/100 (higher reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 3 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
What other schools are in Mount Desert Public Schools?
None reported; Mount Desert Public Schools operates only Mt Desert Elementary 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 July 2026.