The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Math. The lowest is 81% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cal Elementary School
CAL Elementary School serves the small Franklin County community of Latimer from prekindergarten through sixth grade. The school is part of the CAL Community School District, a very small rural district that has a notable arrangement: its upper grades attend Hampton-Dumont through a whole-grade sharing agreement, meaning students who begin at CAL Elementary will move to a different school for seventh grade onward. For families considering this school, the elementary experience is self-contained, but the secondary pathway is a shared one with a neighboring district.
On state assessments, the school turns in numbers that stand out relative to other districts in Franklin County. Overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile when compared to the county’s other districts. In math, the share of students reaching proficient or above is high, and in English language arts, the proficiency rate is similarly strong. Science results were suppressed, likely due to a small tested population, so no conclusion can be drawn there. The school’s participation rate on the tests was high, and the data reflects a single year of testing, so no trend is available. A parent looking for a school where elementary students are performing well on state standards would find evidence here to support that.
The student body is about evenly split between white students and Hispanic students, with a small number of students identifying as two or more races. Just over half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that speaks to the economic context of the community. Data on special education identification and English learner status was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports. The enrollment is small for a PK-6 school, with classes that taper in size from kindergarten through sixth grade, and a relatively large prekindergarten group.
Latimer itself is a very small, quiet rural town that has experienced population decline. Housing values in the area are well below both state and national benchmarks, and the affordable mortgage estimates suggest homeownership is accessible here. The town is auto-oriented, located near Interstate 35, with a limited commercial presence. The town’s civic infrastructure is modest: a city hall, a volunteer fire department, and a mayor-council government. No major employers were identified in the available sources, and the town’s website promotes itself as welcoming to businesses but does not list specific ones. The community is not growing; it is shrinking slightly, and the housing stock is older single-family homes. For a family moving to rural Iowa seeking an affordable place to live, Latimer fits that description, but the trade-off is limited local amenities and a long-term population decline.
The district itself reports no recent parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or tax changes. The sharing agreement for grades 7-12 appears to be a longstanding arrangement, not a new development. For a parent, the key takeaway is that CAL Elementary is the only school in the district, and it is a strong-performing elementary school in a small, affordable, rural setting. The peer environment is a mix of white and Hispanic students from families with modest incomes. The school’s academic outcomes are a clear strength, and the community context is stable but not growing. A family that values a small elementary school with solid test scores and is comfortable with a rural, declining town and a secondary school arrangement that sends students to a different district would find this a practical fit.
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