Geraldine K-12, MT - District Data

Original Research by School Decision on Geraldine K-12

Geraldine K-12 is a small, rural district in Chouteau County, Montana, serving just under seventy students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It comprises three schools: a separate elementary, middle, and high school. The student body is overwhelmingly white by composition; Hispanic students and multiracial students each represent a very small share, and there are no Black, Asian, or Native American students reported in the data.

Because the district is very small, the state suppressed its proficiency results for math and English language arts in grades three through eight for the most recent year, and a participation or proficiency figure for science was also not reported; more than a dozen students did take the science assessment, but how they performed is not available in this data. The state also changed its assessment and cut-score policies in recent years, making comparisons to prior results unreliable. A parent looking at academic performance will find a gap in the public record here and should ask the school directly for its view of student achievement.

A chronic absenteeism rate of roughly a quarter of students places the district above the midpoint among Chouteau County's districts on a metric where lower is better. That level of absence is a soft spot a parent may want to explore further, especially if consistent attendance matters for their child's learning.

The data show no graduation rate; the field is simply absent from the record, so there is no way to assess on-time completion from these numbers.

Per-pupil current spending sits above most other districts in the county, in the upper range of the group, at a level that stands well clear of the county median. The district operates on that comparatively high spending for a very small enrollment, which in many small rural districts reflects the fixed costs of running a full K-12 program, including separate buildings, with few students over which to spread those costs.

Housing in the towns that make up this district's footprint is affordable relative to both the Montana state average and the national house-price benchmark. The area is unambiguously cheaper than the state as a whole, though home values have been rising over the past year at a clip well above the national rate. The typical single-family home in the Geraldine zip code is the most affordable among the handful of ZIP codes contributing to the district's weighted home value, while homes in the Fort Benton and Highwood areas run moderately higher. The economic context at a national level shows a 30-year fixed mortgage rate that remains well above the lows of recent years, which affects buying power.

The district brief turned up no recent referenda, curriculum changes, capital projects, or other parent-relevant shifts that clear the bar for lasting impact. That means a family moving in will encounter a stable, if small, program without recent structural upheaval on the public record.

This is a place for a family that wants a very small rural school environment, with a leadership team that can likely know every child's name. The cost of housing is modest by state and national standards. The risks are equally straightforward: test results are not publicly available to judge academic standing, chronic absence levels bear watching, and there are no program offerings or pathways detailed in the data to signal anything about advanced coursework, career and technical offerings, or extracurricular breadth. The peer group is very small and almost entirely white.

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District Context

Officially reported figures, 2024-25.

Enrollment

Grades

PK–12

Schools

Student body

Hispanic 3%

White 94%

Two+ 3%

Schools in this District

3 schools are officially reported under this district.

Geraldine Elementary

Geraldine High School

Geraldine Middle School

Housing & Real Estate

Data as of April 2026 | District-weighted from constituent ZIP codes

Home Values

Typical home value$268,909

Year-over-year change+11.4%

Range across 4 ZIP codes$259K to $373K

vs. state typical0.57x

vs. national typical0.73x

Home value trend (12 months)

ZIP code home values (4 ZIP codes)

ZIP	City	Value	YoY	Weight
59446	Geraldine	$259K	+11.7%	76.8%
59442	Fort Benton	$293K	+10.8%	20.0%
59450	Highwood	$373K	+10.4%	1.9%
59447	Geyser	$350K	+7.2%	1.1%

Affordability

Est. monthly mortgage (20% down at 6.48%)$1,357/mo

Home price / national median income3.2x

Comparison

State typical home value$467,919 (+1.3% YoY)

National typical home value$368,198 (+0.6% YoY)

State ZHVI trend (12 months)

National ZHVI trend (12 months)

Economic Context

30-year fixed mortgage rate6.48%

National unemployment rate4.3%

National median household income$83,730

CPI: Rent of shelter (index)447.05

30-year fixed mortgage rate (12 months)

National unemployment rate (12 months)

National median household income (12 months)

CPI: Rent of shelter (index) (12 months)

Sources: Zillow Home Value Index and Zillow Observed Rent Index (Zillow Group), Realtor.com via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)

Data Currently Unavailable

Academic Performance
Civil Rights Data (CRDC)

This profile is derived exclusively from publicly available federal and state datasets. It may not reflect the most current information available. We encourage parents and families to supplement this data with information published directly on the school’s website, which may include more recent figures, additional programs, or updated enrollment data.