Lima Reporter

There were 31 non-Hispanic Black students enrolled in Mercer County school districts in the 2022-23 school year, 3.3% more than the previous year, according to reports from the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce.

Data showed that Mercer County school districts welcomed 7,851 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, non-Hispanic Black students comprised 0.4% of the student body to be the least represented ethnicity in the county's school districts.

Among the six school districts in Mercer County, Celina City recorded the highest enrollment of non-Hispanic Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 31 students.

The main offices of all school districts mentioned in the story are located in cities associated with Mercer County.

In 2022, Ohio saw an average student-to-teacher ratio of approximately 1:15, which is an improvement for the state and is lower than the national average of 1:16.

Despite the apparent improvement, this positive trend is overshadowed by a general decline in public school enrollments, which was accelerated by the pandemic. This decline, aligned with the steady number of teachers in the state over the last 10 years, has led to low student-to-teacher ratios.

District	% of Black, Non-Hispanic students	Total enrollment
Celina City	1.2%	2,676
Marion Local Schools	0%	907
Parkway Local Schools	0%	967
Fort Recovery Local Schools	0%	971
St Henry Consolidated Local Schools	0%	987
Coldwater Exempted Village	0%	1,343