The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in Math. The lowest is 25% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Heyburn Elementary School
Heyburn Elementary sits in a small agricultural city on the southern edge of Minidoka County, where the Snake River marks the Cassia County line and the town borders Burley to the south and west. The community's identity runs through potato processing and farm equipment manufacturing, with major employers like the J.R. Simplot plant, Gem State Processing, Double L, and Packaging Corporation of America anchoring the local economy. Publicly reported sources note that the Simplot plant alone brought many hundreds of workers into the area over the years, and the city ranks in the upper quartile for diversity among Idaho municipalities. Interstate 84 cuts across the north side of town, connecting residents west toward the Twin Falls area and southeast toward Ogden, Utah. The built environment is oriented around highway access and vehicle travel, typical for a small agricultural city in southern Idaho.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public campus within the Minidoka County Joint District. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, with fairly even distribution across the grade levels from kindergarten through fifth. The student body is nearly evenly split between white and Hispanic students, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Information on English learner and special education populations was not available in the provided data.
On state assessments, the most recent ISAT results paint a mixed picture. Third graders showed moderate proficiency in both math and English language arts, with roughly four in ten students meeting the proficient bar in each subject. In the upper grades, results were weaker. Fourth and fifth grade ELA proficiency fell below the third grade level, and fifth grade science proficiency was also on the lower end. For fourth and fifth grade math, the state suppressed exact counts, reporting only a range that caps well below the third grade figure. These results suggest that academic outcomes soften as students move toward the upper elementary grades, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school. Participation rate data and average scale scores were not available. The multi-year trend data was limited to a single year of reporting, so no reliable year-over-year comparison could be drawn.
Housing in the school's zip code is relatively affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the Idaho statewide figure and modestly below the national one. Estimated monthly mortgage costs reflect current interest rates in the mid-six percent range, and the price-to-income ratio at the national level suggests the area remains within reach for working families. No rental market data was available for this location. The local housing market has seen only slight year-over-year appreciation, consistent with a steady rather than rapidly appreciating market.
The district brief returned no specific parent-relevant changes such as recent referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax adjustments, so there is little to report on that front. The school's website and further district communications would be the place to look for current program offerings, staffing details, discipline policies, and attendance patterns, as these fields were not populated in the available data.
For families considering this area, Heyburn offers a small-city setting with a working agricultural economy, a relatively diverse student population, and housing costs that remain below state and national medians. The academic data shows a school where early-grade performance is reasonable but where upper-elementary proficiency declines, particularly in math and science. Parents weighing this school may want to ask the administration about supports for students in the transition from early to upper elementary grades and how the school addresses the proficiency drop its own assessment data reveals.
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