The reported proficiency rate for Math is 56%.
Original Research by School Decision on Southwest Harbor Public Schools
Southwest Harbor Public Schools is a small coastal Maine district serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, with a single school, Pemetic Elementary School, carrying the entire enrollment. The district sits in Hancock County, and the housing market in its attendance zone is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well above the Maine median and a price-to-income ratio that points to a challenging market for families buying in. That affordability picture matters because the district is small enough that the community and the school are tightly linked, and the cost of living shapes who can put down roots here.
Enrollment is small, with roughly a dozen students per grade and a pre-kindergarten classroom of similar size. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students identifying as Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, or two or more races. The district did not report free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education counts, or English learner figures, so a parent looking for information on economic diversity or support services would need to ask the school directly. Those gaps are common in very small districts, but they leave an incomplete picture of student needs.
On state assessments, the district's most recent math results for grades three through eight show a majority of tested students scoring proficient or above, which is a solid result for a district of this size. English language arts proficiency could not be calculated as a rate from the available data, though a count of proficient students was reported. Science proficiency data was not available. Average scale scores and participation rates were missing across subjects, and no multi-year trend data was provided, so it is not possible to say whether performance is improving, holding steady, or slipping over time. A parent may want to look into the school directly for the full picture on ELA and science, and for how results have moved year to year.
The district does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate, no AP or career pathway data, and no dual-credit information to report. Students presumably transition to a regional or neighboring high school for grades nine through twelve, though the available data does not identify which one. That transition is something a family would want to understand early, since the small-class intimacy of Pemetic gives way to a different environment once students move on.
Housing in the district's zip code is costly. Typical home values are well above both the state and national medians, and estimated monthly mortgage costs reflect current interest rates that remain elevated. Rent data was not available for this area. The price-to-income ratio suggests that buying a home here requires a substantial income relative to much of Maine, which may limit who can access the district through the housing market. The local economy context drawn from broader data shows a stable unemployment picture and a median household income that has risen modestly in recent years, though those figures are statewide and may not capture the specific economics of a small island-adjacent community on Mount Desert Island.
The district brief turned up no confirmed parent-relevant changes or strategic initiatives in the recent record. This is a quiet district in terms of publicly documented reform or program shifts, which can mean stability, but it also means a parent will not find much in the way of publicly reported plans for growth or program expansion to weigh. Program offerings, course access details, staffing ratios, discipline data, and attendance figures were not available in the data provided. Civil rights data was not reported. A neighbor comparison was not available, so the district's position relative to other Hancock County districts on academic or demographic measures cannot be stated here.
What the available evidence describes is a very small, stable, pre-K-through-eight district with one school, solid math proficiency, a homogeneous student population, and a housing market that prices well above the state. For a family already connected to the area or able to manage the cost of entry, the small scale and single-school simplicity are real characteristics to weigh. For a family that wants detailed data on student supports, long-term academic trends, or the high school transition, the public record here is thin, and those questions are best taken directly to the school.
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