Southern Local

Southern Local in Ohio educates about 680 students across two schools in Racine: Southern Elementary School, which serves PK–8 with 495 students, and Southern High School, which serves grades 9–12 with 185 students. The Southern Local district overall ranks 566th of 773 Ohio districts — the 27th percentile, with 1 star — so performance is low overall, though the two schools have quite different profiles.

The elementary school, which holds about 73% of district enrollment, has a stable but low rank of 35th, 34th, and 36th percentile over the past three years, at 2 stars each year. Its real strengths are early literacy and 4th grade math: 3rd grade English Language Arts is 13.1 points above the state, 4th grade ELA is 4.9 points above, and 4th grade math is 10.7 points above. Math is its biggest weakness — grades 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all sit far below state, including 6th grade math at 29.5% versus 56.2% and 7th grade math at 24.4% versus 48.6%. Because this school covers the middle grades, those gaps flow straight into the high school.

The high school posts a strong 92.3% graduation rate, and its best 2025–26 subject result, American History, was 3.5 points above state. But its rank has slid from the 52nd percentile with 3 stars in 2023–24 to the 33rd percentile with 2 stars in 2025–26, now slightly below the elementary school, and most 2025–26 end-of-course results are below state, with Geometry weakest at 35.6%. Chronic absenteeism is 22.4% at the high school versus 18.9% at the elementary school and 19.9% district-wide, and its smaller student-teacher ratio of 11.5 (versus 17) has not translated into stronger outcomes. Free/reduced lunch percentages are not reported, and the only spending figures available date to 2018–19.