Lima Reporter

There were 7,256 non-Hispanic white students enrolled in Mercer County school districts in the 2022-23 school year, almost the same number as 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 white students comprised 92.4% of the student body to be the most 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 white students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 2,274 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 White, Non-Hispanic students	Total enrollment
Marion Local Schools	97.7%	907
St Henry Consolidated Local Schools	96.6%	987
Fort Recovery Local Schools	96.3%	971
Coldwater Exempted Village	96.2%	1,343
Parkway Local Schools	94.7%	967
Celina City	85%	2,676