The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in Math. The lowest is 27% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lake Valley Elementary School
Lake Valley Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Prescott Valley, a fast-growing high-desert town roughly eight miles east of Prescott. The school is part of the Humboldt Unified School District, which is the second-largest employer in town and operates multiple campuses across the community. Prescott Valley itself has a mix of residential, industrial, and retail development, and it has grown steadily from a small unincorporated area into a town of notice. The built environment is mostly auto-oriented, with wide highways and a downtown entertainment district that provides some walkable concentration around the Findlay Toyota Center, restaurants, and shops. Fain Park, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserves remnants of early gold mining, and the town maintains more than two dozen parks and trails. A new on-demand transit system, YavaLine, began service in 2022.
State testing data is available for math, English language arts, and science across several grade levels, and the results give a clear picture of where the school stands. On the latest state assessments, the overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places Lake Valley below the midpoint when compared to other elementary schools in Yavapai County. In third-grade math, a modest share of students met the proficiency bar, and the figure was similar in third-grade English. By fourth grade, English proficiency was lower, and the fourth-grade math result was suppressed and not reported. Fifth-grade math proficiency was in a similar range as third-grade, and fifth-grade English proficiency was in line with the other tested grades. In fifth-grade science, just over a quarter of students were proficient. These figures are consistent across the available grade levels and suggest that academic performance is an area where a parent may want to look into this further with the school. The data does not include multi-year trends because only one year of assessment results was available, so it is not possible to say whether these figures are improving or declining.
The school enrolls students from kindergarten through sixth grade, and the student body is split roughly evenly between students who identify as white and those who identify as Hispanic, with small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic groups. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are classified as English learners was not available.
Housing in the area around the school has a typical cost that is slightly above the national benchmark, and rents are moderate relative to area incomes. The estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home in the ZIP code is several hundred dollars higher than the typical rent, which may influence family decisions about renting versus buying. The national unemployment rate at the time of this data was stable and just above four percent.
The school itself is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. It does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.
The Humboldt Unified School District has faced significant financial challenges in recent years. Voters rejected a budget override continuation in 2023, creating a budget gap that the district is phasing in reductions over several years, affecting programs, staffing, and class sizes. A bond proposal for facility and technology upgrades was also rejected by voters in 2022. District enrollment has declined, which puts additional pressure on state funding that is tied to student counts. In 2020, the district voted to close one of its schools due to budget constraints but later reversed the decision after community pushback. These district-level conditions matter for Lake Valley families because they shape class sizes, program availability, and the overall resources available at the school.
For a parent considering Lake Valley, the school sits in a growing but budget-constrained district where academic proficiency on state tests trails the county median. The student body is diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, and the school serves a grade range that feeds into district middle and high schools. The town itself offers a range of parks and a downtown entertainment district, and the housing market is moderately priced relative to the national picture. A family weighing this school will want to understand what programs and supports are currently in place despite the district's budget pressures, and how the school's academic trajectory compares to other options in the area.
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