Summary:
Lima, Ohio has 22 schools serving roughly 8,917 students in grades PK–12, split across five public districts — Lima City, Shawnee Local, Bath Local, Perry Local, and Apollo — plus two charter schools, Heir Force Community School and West Central Learning Academy II.
The city's schools fall into three very different tiers. Bath Local and Shawnee Local rank near the top of Ohio's distribution (4 stars), with graduation rates of 94–98% and proficiency well above state averages; Bath Elementary School ranked in the top 10% of Ohio elementaries despite reporting the city's highest free/reduced-lunch rate. Perry Local sits in the middle, with solid humanities and science results and the highest graduation rate in the data set (98.3% at Perry High School), but Geometry proficiency there is only 18.0%. Lima City, the largest district with 37.8% of the city's students, is rated 1 star overall, yet its magnets stand out: Lima South Science-Technology Magnet K-8 (3 stars, 63rd percentile) and Liberty Arts Magnet K-8, whose 13.5% absenteeism is the lowest of any Lima City school. Lima Senior High School and Lima West Middle School rank among the state's lowest performers.
Two patterns matter most for parents. Chronic absenteeism tracks achievement more closely than any other measure: the four schools above 50% absenteeism are also the lowest-ranked, while every school under 18% ranks at the 43rd percentile or better. Math in Lima City also drops sharply in grades 5–8 (from about 27% in 5th grade to about 20% in 8th), feeding low high-school Algebra I results. Per-student spending and student-teacher ratios show little relationship to outcomes here. Note that Apollo Career Center (745 students) and Bath Digital Academy report no test, graduation, or rank data.
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