Original Research by School Decision on Truxton Academy Charter School
Truxton Academy Charter School is a small rural elementary charter school in Cortland County that serves kindergarten through sixth grade. The school operates as a single-building district with roughly 74 students, which means individual class sizes run very small, around eight students per teacher. The enrollment is nearly all white, with a tiny number of Hispanic and multiracial students; data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special-population counts were not available.
The school opened as New York's first rural elementary charter school and completed a planned grade-by-grade build-out, starting with K-2 and adding one grade per year until reaching a full K-6 range. That completed structure means a family enrolling now can count on a stable program rather than an organization still in growth mode.
Academic performance is the central question a family would face here. Across multiple recent school years, the school's state-test proficiency has remained well below New York State averages, placing it in the bottom tier of the state's elementary schools. The gap is substantial: roughly one-third of students have scored proficient in math and less than half in reading, compared to statewide proficiency rates near three-quarters in both subjects. This pattern has held consistent over several years, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what is driving the gap and what plans exist to address it. The school's pedagogical model emphasizes hands-on, project-based learning, farm-based outdoor education, gardening, and Spanish beginning in kindergarten, so families attracted to that approach would be weighing it against these academic-performance results.
A 2025 New York State Comptroller audit found that the school overbilled its students' resident districts for state aid tied to special education services between 2022-23 and 2023-24. The audit identified problems with billing procedures, documentation, and adherence to state guidance. School officials agreed with the recommendations and committed to corrective action. Because charter schools depend on tuition revenue billed to home districts for each student, billing accuracy and financial management are tied directly to the school's stability. This audit finding is recent enough that a parent would want to understand what steps have been taken and how billing now functions.
Among Cortland County's districts, the school reports a chronic absenteeism rate that falls in the bottom quartile, meaning attendance patterns are notably weaker than the county median. Per-pupil spending is in the upper range for the county, reflecting the very small enrollment and the intensive staffing ratio that comes with it. State testing data across the county's districts was not available for a full proficiency comparison, and no graduation rate applies since the school serves only elementary grades.
The school is chartered by SUNY and operates as a fully self-contained district. A family considering enrollment would be choosing a very small, rural, project-based elementary program with a distinctive pedagogical model, offset by persistent performance gaps against state norms and recent governance questions about billing accuracy.
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