Original Research by School Decision on Silverton Middle School
Silverton Middle School sits inside a town that is, in many ways, unlike any other in Colorado. Silverton is a tiny former mining settlement, the entire place a federally designated National Historic Landmark District with preserved Victorian-era buildings. There are no chain hotels, no big box stores, no fast food restaurants. The economy runs on tourism: thousands of visitors arrive each summer via the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and by car on the Million Dollar Highway, while winter is quieter, drawing backcountry skiers to Silverton Mountain. The year-round residential community is small, made up of outdoor enthusiasts, remote workers, and a growing number of families. The town has been slowly adding housing, including a new townhome project, and it became the first Colorado jurisdiction to meet state affordable housing goals under a recent proposition. But housing affordability and availability remain pressing concerns in a place with very limited developable land.
The middle school itself reflects the scale of the community. Its enrollment is very small, drawing from a student population that is roughly half White and about a third Hispanic, with small shares of American Indian or Alaska Native and Black students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a common indicator of economic need. The school serves grades six through eight and is a regular public school within the Silverton School District No. 1, which is the only district in San Juan County.
Because the student body is so small, the state testing results that are typically used to gauge academic performance are not available. Colorado suppresses test results when the number of students tested is too low to protect individual privacy. The participation rates were very low in math, English language arts, and science, which effectively means the school does not have publicly reported proficiency data. This is not unusual for a school of this size; a parent looking for comparative test scores will not find them here, and the school would be the right source for a conversation about student progress.
There is no graduation rate because the school only covers the middle grades. No data is available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, course access, or special programs. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes. The neighbor comparison is within San Juan County, which contains only one district, so there is no meaningful peer set to position the school against.
What is available paints a picture of a very small, rural middle school in a town that is both remote and growing in its appeal to families. The setting is compact and walkable, with civic buildings and the school within the town's grid. The town has no public transit; residents rely on personal vehicles, and the average commute is short, as one might expect in a place where almost everything is within walking distance. Housing values have risen in recent years, though they remain roughly in line with the state median, and the homeownership rate is below the national average.
For a family considering Silverton, the middle school's size is probably the single most defining feature. A school of twenty students means small classes and the kind of close-knit environment where every student is known. But it also means limited program breadth—no extensive elective menus, no wide range of extracurriculars—and the loss of the comparative data that larger schools provide. The community context is equally distinctive: a historic mountain town with a seasonal rhythm, limited retail, and a strong outdoor recreation culture. The school fits that context, and families who are drawn to Silverton are likely drawn to exactly this kind of school.
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