The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Math. The lowest is 61% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Southside Elementary School
Southside Elementary School sits in Cocolalla, an unincorporated rural community on the south shore of Cocolalla Lake in Bonner County, Idaho. The school is part of the Lake Pend Oreille School District and serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. It is a regular public school, neither charter nor magnet, drawing from a community that is overwhelmingly residential and dispersed along U.S. Route 95.
Cocolalla has no downtown, no commercial core, no sidewalks. Publicly reported descriptions characterize it as a low-density settlement strung along a major highway, with lakefront properties on Cocolalla Lake and homes spread across large lots. The nearest commercial center is Sandpoint, roughly a dozen miles north, where residents drive for shopping, services, and social activity. No major employers operate within the Cocolalla area itself; most working residents commute to Sandpoint or farther south to Coeur d'Alene. The community's civic anchors are the lake, a lake association, and a post office. No public library, park system, or transit service was identified within the community. Population estimates suggest modest growth over recent years, though no specific housing developments or commercial construction projects surfaced in publicly reported sources.
The housing market here is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values in the school's ZIP code run well above the Idaho median and roughly double the national figure. The price-to-income ratio is high, and estimated monthly mortgage costs dwarf what a household would pay in rent, making ownership a steep proposition for families moving into the area. Rents, where available, remain considerably more affordable than buying, though rental data itself was limited.
Southside is a small school. Enrollment sits at a modest level for its grade band, with roughly two dozen students per grade from kindergarten through sixth. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of students identifying as Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, or two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those dimensions of the student population remain unspecified.
On state assessments, the picture is mixed and, in several grades, hard to read with confidence. The school takes the Idaho ISAT. Most grade-level results were reported only as wide ranges rather than precise proficiency rates, a pattern that reflects small tested groups where a handful of students can shift the outcome substantially. Where solid figures were available, they were encouraging. Sixth-grade math proficiency landed above the point where a majority of students tested proficient, and fifth-grade English language arts showed a similar pattern, with most students reaching proficiency. Fifth-grade math results fell into a middle band, suggesting somewhere between a third and half of tested students were proficient. Other grade-level results across both subjects spanned very wide ranges, from near the bottom to near the top of the scale, and cannot be pinned down from the available data. Science results for fifth grade were likewise reported only as a range. Average scale scores were not available for any grade or subject, and participation rate data was missing across the board. No reliable multi-year trend could be established from the data provided.
No graduation rate applies here, since the school does not serve high school grades. No civil-rights data, discipline information, course-access details, staffing figures, or attendance metrics were provided, so those areas go unnamed rather than guessed. Title I status was not reported. The district brief for Lake Pend Oreille School District did not surface specific parent-relevant changes in recent years.
What a family gets at Southside is a small, rural elementary school in a quiet lakeside community, with class sizes that mean teachers likely know every student by name. The assessment data that is solid shows real strength in the upper grades, particularly in sixth-grade math and fifth-grade literacy. The data that is missing or wide-ranging is a function of the school's size more than a signal of weakness, though a parent may want to look into the middle grades further with the school to understand the full picture. The trade-off is location: life here is car-dependent, amenities are a drive north to Sandpoint, and buying a home means contending with a housing market that prices well above the state norm. A family drawn to rural lake life and willing to manage that distance may find Southside a good fit. A family seeking walkability, nearby services, or a larger peer cohort may want to weigh those preferences carefully.
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