Original Research by School Decision on Lupelele Elementary School
Lupelele Elementary School is a public school in the village of Iliili on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates under the American Samoa Department of Education, the territory-wide public school system. The school sits in a primarily residential village on the Tafuna-Leone Plain in the southwest part of the island, less than a mile from the southern coastline and a short distance southwest of Pago Pago.
Iliili is the third most populated village in American Samoa and serves as the principal place of Tualauta County. Publicly reported descriptions portray a community where institutions are spread across the village rather than clustered in a traditional downtown core. Religious life is a visible part of the village fabric, with the Samoa Mission of Seventh-day Adventists maintaining its American Samoa district headquarters there, alongside multiple churches and a Bahá'í Center. The village is also home to the territory's only golf course, the Lavalava Golf Course, an eighteen-hole course maintained by the American Samoa Department of Parks and Recreation. Iakina Adventist Academy, a private school run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, also operates in the village, offering families an alternative to the public system. No public library or transit system specific to Iliili was identified in available sources.
Population in the village has been gradually declining in recent years, and no major new housing developments or commercial construction projects were found in publicly reported sources. Specific employer data is limited; beyond the SDA mission headquarters and the government-maintained golf course, no large private-sector employers were identified. For families considering the area, this is a quiet residential community with scattered civic and religious anchors rather than a commercial hub.
For the school itself, the available data is thin. Enrollment figures, student demographic breakdowns, and free-or-reduced-price lunch rates were not available in the provided data. The same is true for English learner and special education counts, staffing levels, attendance patterns, discipline data, and course access information. State assessment results were not available, and no multi-year academic trends could be computed. A nationally standardized academic context, civil-rights data, graduation rate, program offerings, and a neighbor comparison were not provided either. A district brief for the American Samoa Department of Education was not included, so we cannot speak to recent system-wide changes or strategic priorities.
The grade band through eighth grade means there is no graduation rate to report, which is expected for a school that does not serve high school grades. State testing data may exist for this school through the American Samoa Department of Education but was not included in the information provided to us.
What a parent can take from this is limited but straightforward. Lupelele is a public K-through-8 school in a residential village with strong religious and community institutions and limited commercial activity. The village is well-positioned geographically on the Tafuna-Leone Plain, close to the coast and within reach of Pago Pago. Beyond that, a parent looking to understand academic performance, student composition, available programs, or school climate would need to contact the school or the American Samoa Department of Education directly, as those details were not available in the data we reviewed.
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