Best Public Schools in Petal, MS

The city of Petal, Mississippi, is served by six schools across two districts—Petal School District and Perry County School District—covering grades PK–12 with about 4,426 students. Five of the six schools belong to the Petal district, which is rated a 5-star, top-10% district in Mississippi, while Runnelstown School operates under the lower-ranked Perry County district. This creates a sharp local divide: most Petal families have access to high-performing schools, but those zoned for Runnelstown attend a 1-star school that struggles in nearly every subject.

Among the Petal district schools, Petal Elementary 3–4 is the most consistent, earning 4 stars for three straight years with the lowest chronic absenteeism (10.6%) and strong math scores. Petal Upper Elementary stands out as a math and science powerhouse, posting a 22-point advantage over the state in 6th-grade math. Petal High School has a strong 95.8% graduation rate and leads in Algebra I (83.4% proficient), though its overall rating slipped from the 92nd to the 80th percentile. Petal Middle School shows solid math performance but has fallen from the 97th to the 81st percentile, with only 40.2% proficiency in 7th-grade ELA. Petal Primary School serves PK–2 and has no test data, but its attendance is strong. By contrast, Runnelstown has the highest poverty rate (75.7%), highest absenteeism (25.0%), and lowest test scores in the area, despite having the smallest class sizes.

The clearest pattern is that math is the Petal district’s strength, while English language arts needs attention, especially in middle school. Attendance also tracks closely with outcomes: the two schools with the lowest performance—Runnelstown and Petal Middle—have the highest chronic absenteeism. Interestingly, Runnelstown’s low student-teacher ratio (10:1) did not help its results, suggesting poverty, attendance, and district support matter more than class size alone. Petal’s unusual grade-band structure (PK–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–12) means children change schools several times, but the elementary grades remain strong. Overall, Petal district schools prove that high-poverty schools can succeed, while Runnelstown remains the clear outlier in urgent need of targeted reading and math interventions.