Saint Marys Elementary School, Saint Marys GA

Original Research by School Decision on Saint Marys Elementary School

Saint Marys Elementary School serves students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in a compact coastal town that blends naval base employment, heritage tourism, and growing residential development. The school enrolls a school of typical elementary size, with about three-fifths of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller populations of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available.

The school's academic profile shows uneven performance across subjects and grade levels. In math, proficiency varies substantially by grade: fourth-graders perform well, while third- and fifth-graders show lower proficiency. English language arts proficiency is below math across all grades, with third grade notably weaker than fourth and fifth. Science proficiency in fifth grade falls between the two. The school has one year of reported data, so trend information is not available to show whether these patterns are stable or shifting.

The school sits on a dedicated campus off Osborne Road, part of a civic cluster that includes the library, aquatic center, and civic park. Saint Marys itself is a mixed identity: a Navy town adjoining Kings Bay Submarine Base, a retirement and bedroom community with active new home development, and a gateway to Cumberland Island. The waterfront downtown is compact and walkable with restaurants, galleries, and local shops, but daily life outside that core requires a car. Three major developers are active in the area, including a large master-planned community with industrial, commercial, and residential components, signaling population growth.

The broader Camden County School District serves this community alongside smaller populations in surrounding areas. Voters approved a renewal of the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax in 2022, authorizing funding for school buildings, buses, textbooks, and technology infrastructure over a multiyear period, financed through sales tax rather than property tax. The district also recently moved to a new student information system, Infinite Campus, replacing PowerSchool; families accessing grades, attendance, and schedules must create accounts in the new system.

Housing in the Saint Marys zip code sits modestly below the state benchmark for value, with median rent at roughly one-fifth of household income. The area's economy is anchored by the naval base and defense contracting, with secondary employment in healthcare, local government, and tourism. Saint Marys offers families a small-town setting with military-adjacent employment stability, active new home construction, and proximity to beach and island heritage, balanced against the school's mixed performance picture and the need to understand whether the current test results reflect recent enrollment growth or longer-term patterns.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 61% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 487%

School 87% · District 71% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 60% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 47% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 59% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 63% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median

Science

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 67%

▲ 27 pts above state median

Social studies

Grades 3-891%

School 91% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median

This schoolCamden County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income44%Higher-income64%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income78%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income51%Higher-income59%8 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income49%Higher-income67%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income59%Higher-income68%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income88%Higher-income100%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income62%22 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income61%Higher-income78%17 pp gap