Original Research by School Decision on Cleona El Sch
Cleona Elementary is a small school serving kindergarten through second grade within the Annville-Cleona School District, located on Walnut Street in the borough of Cleona adjacent to the five-acre Cleona Community Park. The school draws roughly equal numbers of students across its three grades, with a student body that is substantially white, with a meaningful Hispanic population, a smaller Asian cohort, and very few students identifying as Black or multiracial.
About half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school in a community with real economic diversity and moderate income pressure. The school sits within Cleona borough itself, a stable, small residential community of roughly 1,400 people on a compact street grid. The everyday landscape is residential blocks, a busy Route 422 commercial corridor with retail and service businesses, and the borough park. The broader economy leans on healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing in Lebanon County, plus expanding logistics operations in the nearby Hershey-Lebanon corridor. Median household income in the region is solid, and home values are moderate, though rents and mortgage costs are rising and the affordability picture has tightened.
Because Cleona Elementary serves only early grades, state testing results are not applicable; Pennsylvania does not test kindergarten through second grade students. The school's academic environment and student outcomes in foundational literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional development therefore cannot be reported from state assessments. A parent may want to look into the school's reading and math curriculum and early literacy screening practices directly with the school.
The Annville-Cleona School District operates as a small, unified system across two towns. The district operates three physical schools: Cleona Elementary (K-2), Annville Elementary (grades 3-6), and a combined secondary campus for grades 7-12 in Annville. The district also offers a full-time virtual academy (K-12) as an in-district online option. The district approved a property tax increase for the 2026-27 school year, setting a direct cost-of-ownership impact for families considering homes in the boundary. The secondary campus underwent a significant expansion project completed in 2024, consolidating middle and high school grades on a shared facility.
Cleona Elementary itself has no separate academic performance data or specialized program offerings listed. The school functions as the district's entry point for the youngest learners, feeding into the grade 3-6 program at Annville Elementary before students enter the secondary campus in grade seven. Families are choosing this school because it is their neighborhood school for early childhood, not because of distinctive academic programs or offerings; the school's value depends on the quality of teaching and the classroom experience, which the data provided does not measure. Staffing levels, classroom sizes, curriculum specifics, and student support services are not available in this summary and would require direct inquiry to the school or district.
The school's location within Cleona borough means it serves families living within a small, walkable-grid community rather than a sprawling suburban district, and it is adjacent to the community park, a genuine civic anchor with ball fields, courts, a creek path, and seasonal events. However, the older grades and district administration are based in neighboring Annville, so the school represents only the youngest cohort within a larger K-12 system whose center of gravity lies elsewhere.
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