Enrollment
65
Maine · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Penobscot, ME
Penobscot Elementary School
Federal NCES profile for Penobscot Elementary School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 57/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 230963000260
👥 S:T ratio 68
🌟 Gifted program 30
🎓 Counselors 35
📋 Attendance 96
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Penobscot Elementary School earns 57/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 88% of Maine schools.
- 57
- Resource Index · Higher
- 8.1:1
- small classes for Maine
- 13.0%
- free-lunch eligible
- 65
- students enrolled
Penobscot Elementary School has class sizes smaller than 88% of Maine schools. Computed live against every Maine school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Penobscot Public Schools · Maine
NCES ID 230963000260 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
8.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
8.1:1
vs 11.1:1 Maine avg
-27% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
13.0%
vs 34.0% Maine avg
-62% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Penobscot Elementary School compares with Maine and U.S. medians
What stands out at Penobscot Elementary School
Small campus with unusually lean teacher staffing
Penobscot Elementary School sits near the smaller end of the Maine enrollment distribution while also reporting a lower student-teacher ratio than most state schools. That pairing is consistent with a compact, teacher-dense setting, though small scale can limit the number of specialized courses or support roles a campus can sustain. The program and staffing sections below show whether the lean ratio extends beyond classroom teachers into broader student services.
Lower need and stronger resource signals align
Penobscot 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.
Attendance is a relative strength
1.5% of Penobscot Elementary School students were chronically absent in the 2021-22 civil-rights collection. On its face, that is a comparatively low historical rate, though this page does not treat it as a current national benchmark or guarantee current-year performance. Here, attendance is a more distinctive signal than the presence or absence of any single specialist role.
Penobscot Elementary School is a lower-poverty, small combined-grade school in Penobscot, Maine, enrolling 65 students.
Classes run notably small here: at 8.1:1, Penobscot Elementary School is leaner than roughly 88% of Maine schools and 27% under the state's 11.1:1 norm, more adult attention per pupil than most peers.
Comparatively few students face economic hardship here, 13.0% free-meal eligibility runs 62% below the Maine average.
This is a small campus: fewer students than 91% of Maine schools, with 65 enrolled.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the upper third of 569 scored Maine schools.
Its student body is predominantly White (92% of enrollment) (diversity index 15/100).
Counselor coverage runs a bit thin, about 325 students per counselor, somewhat past the ASCA-recommended 250:1 benchmark.
Attendance holds up well here: only 1.5% of students were chronically absent, below the typical post-pandemic national figure.
The surrounding Penobscot Public Schools spends $15,286 per pupil, 24% below the Maine average, a leaner-resourced district than most.
Penobscot Public Schools operates only this one school, so Penobscot Elementary School has no district-mates to compare against locally. At 65 students, it is also a small operation, on the smaller end of Maine's single-school districts.
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 Penobscot Elementary School compares
Penobscot 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 | 8.1:1 | ▼ 27% | 11.1:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 13.0% | ▼ 62% | 34.0% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 65 | top 91% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
8.1:1
Leaner classes than 95% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
65
Bigger than 7% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
13.0%
free-lunch eligible
- 62% 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
8.1:1
students per teacher
- 27% below state mean
Top 12% in Maine - lower ratio than 88% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
1.5%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
Below 5%, comfortably under the pre-pandemic national baseline for chronic absenteeism.
Funding equity
$15,286
per pupil, district-wide
- below Maine avg of $20,083
Somewhat below the U.S. average per-pupil spend; funding constraints may affect programs, facilities, and staffing.
Support staff
Counselors0.2 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
0
in-school suspensions + 0 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 92.3%
Two or More 3.1%
Hispanic or Latino 1.5%
Asian 1.5%
American Indian / Alaska Native 1.5%
Largest group: White at 92.3% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 14.6/100
Simpson diversity index - at 14.6, Penobscot Elementary School is less mixed than the Maine school average of 20.6.
Programs
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Penobscot Public Schools, which includes Penobscot Elementary School.
$15,286
Per student
-24%
vs Maine
Avg $20,083
-8%
vs U.S.
Avg $16,593
Revenue mix
Local 86.7%
State 9.9%
Federal 3.4%
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 (~65 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~8.1:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Penobscot Elementary School's federal record.
- Compare Penobscot Elementary School against another school. Compare schools
- Penobscot 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 Penobscot Elementary School
How many students attend Penobscot Elementary School?
Penobscot Elementary School has 65 students enrolled. It is a public school in Penobscot, ME.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Penobscot Elementary School?
The student-teacher ratio at Penobscot Elementary School is 8.1:1, which is 27% lower than the Maine average of 11.1:1 and 48% 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 Penobscot Elementary School?
13.0% of students at Penobscot Elementary School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Maine average of 34.0%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Penobscot Elementary School?
The largest demographic group at Penobscot Elementary School is White at 92.3% of enrollment, in Penobscot, ME.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Penobscot Elementary School?
Penobscot Elementary School has a Resource Investment Index of 57/100 (higher 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 Penobscot Public Schools?
None reported; Penobscot Public Schools operates only Penobscot 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.