Original Research by School Decision on Hysham K-12 Schools
Hysham K-12 Schools is a small rural district serving the full range of grades from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in Treasure County, Montana. It operates three schools: Hysham School, Hysham High School, and Hysham 7-8. The district’s total enrollment is small, and the student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and a very small number of students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native or as two or more races. Data on economic disadvantage, special education eligibility, and English learner status were not available, so a parent would need to ask the district directly about the share of students receiving support services.
State testing data for the most recent school year was suppressed for both math and English language arts in grades three through eight, meaning the proficiency rate and the number of students tested were not reported publicly. For science in the same grade band, results from an earlier school year were simply missing. Because the suppression likely reflects the district’s very small testing cohort—when a group is too small, Montana withholds the figure to protect student privacy—the lack of a reported proficiency rate is not itself a signal of low or high performance, but it does mean a parent cannot use state assessment results to gauge academic achievement here. No high school assessment data was available in the dataset either. The graduation rate was not present in the data, and a parent who wants that figure should ask the district office directly. The district’s small size means that many typical metrics of comparison, such as per-pupil spending and chronic absenteeism, were not applicable for comparison among Treasure County’s districts because there were not enough districts in the county to create a meaningful benchmark.
Housing in the area is modestly priced compared to the state and national averages, with home values well below Montana’s typical figure. The district’s weighted home value estimate reflects the properties within its zip code area, and the annual change in that value has been moderate. A family moving here would find housing costs substantially lower than what they would face in much of the rest of the state, though the trade-off is that this is a very sparsely populated part of Montana with limited nearby amenities.
The district brief turned up no specific parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum overhauls, or property tax shifts from recent board meetings or local news, based on a search of available sources. This is not unusual for a very small rural district where such activity may occur but not be captured in the usual public records archives that the search covered. A parent considering Hysham would want to contact the district directly to ask about recent developments, upcoming budget decisions, and any changes to programming or staffing.
For a family, this is a district where the student peer group is small and homogenous in composition. The academic pathway is opaque from the outside because the state has not published proficiency rates. The setting is rural and remote in a county with very few districts. A parent who values very small class sizes and a single-building school environment may find this fits, but they will need to make inquiries directly with the district to get the kind of academic outcome data, student support information, and program details that are routinely available in larger districts.
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