Original Research by School Decision on Coal Ridge High School
Coal Ridge High School is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve in the Garfield School District No. Re-2. It is located between New Castle and the neighboring community of Silt on the Western Slope of Colorado. The school building opened in the early 2000s, part of a wave of new construction that accompanied the town's rapid growth.
The school's enrollment is about the size expected for a single high school in a small mountain town. The student body is roughly evenly split between students who identify as Hispanic and students who identify as white, with a small number of students from other racial backgrounds. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that sits within the lower range for a public school in this part of the state. Data on the share of students with disabilities and the share of English learners was not available; a parent may want to ask the school directly about how those populations are supported.
State testing data for Coal Ridge High School was not available in the profile. Without that information, it is not possible to characterize the school's academic proficiency levels in core subjects or to place its performance relative to other high schools in Garfield County. The same is true for the school's graduation rate, which was also missing from the profile. A parent or resident looking to compare this school's academic outcomes with neighboring high schools will need to seek that information from the district or the Colorado Department of Education directly.
The school does not appear to publish a detailed catalog of its course offerings or program pathways in the available data, so the breadth of Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment, or career and technical education options is not documented here. Without that information, a family considering the school may want to request a course guide from the school office.
New Castle itself is a former coal-mining town that has transformed into a bedroom community along the Interstate 70 corridor. The town has seen dramatic growth in recent decades, with new residential subdivisions pushing outward from the historic Main Street core. The housing market reflects that trend; home values have risen substantially and are above the Colorado state average, while rents are at a level that a household earning the national median income would find comfortably affordable. Schools have kept pace with the growth. The district passed a major bond measure in the last several years that includes funding for classroom additions at Coal Ridge High School, among other facility upgrades across Garfield Re-2. That bond carries a lasting property tax impact for district residents.
The school is not a charter or magnet school. It is a regular public high school serving its attendance zone. The district operates seven schools in total across Garfield County, and Coal Ridge is one of two comprehensive high schools within the district.
For a family, Coal Ridge High School offers a setting that is a product of this region's growth and change. It sits at a distance from the downtown core of New Castle, on the highway toward Silt, in a landscape bordered by public lands and the Colorado River. What the school offers academically, and how its students perform, remains largely undefined in the available public data. A parent moving into the area or considering the school should expect to gather additional information directly from the district about test scores, graduation rates, and program offerings before forming a full picture.
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