The reported proficiency rate for Math is 38%.
Original Research by School Decision on Pinecrest Academy of Lewiston
Pinecrest Academy of Lewiston is a tuition-free public charter school serving kindergarten through fifth grade on Lewiston's north side, near Ninth Avenue. It opened in 2023, according to publicly reported information, as a STEAM-focused school with lottery-based enrollment. For families in the Lewiston area, it represents a relatively new public option outside the traditional district framework, operating under Idaho's charter school statutes. The school is small, with grade-level cohorts that reflect a still-growing enrollment, and its published profile lists it as newly operational rather than established.
The academic picture from state testing is thin. Idaho's ISAT results for the most recent school year are largely unavailable for this school. Several grade-level proficiency rates were suppressed, which typically happens when the number of tested students in a cohort falls below state reporting thresholds. That pattern is consistent with a small school where each grade has roughly fifteen to twenty students. One result was reported: fifth-grade math, where fewer than half of the tested students reached proficiency. A single grade-level result in one subject does not give a reliable read on the school's overall academic performance, and a parent may want to ask the school directly how it is tracking and responding to student outcomes. No trend data was available in a form that could be meaningfully interpreted. Because Pinecrest serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate, and the school does not yet have the years of operating history that would show whether early cohorts are building toward stronger results as the school matures.
The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students. Information on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, and English learner status was not available, so the socioeconomic and support-service picture is incomplete. A parent whose child receives special education services or English language support would want to confirm directly with the school what staffing and accommodations are in place, since the public data does not describe them.
Lewiston itself is a regional hub at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, the largest city in the Lewis-Clark Valley and the primary center for healthcare, retail, and professional services in the area. Its industrial base runs toward paper and timber products, with the Clearwater Paper mill as the largest manufacturing employer, alongside ammunition manufacturing anchored by CCI and Speer Bullet. Lewis-Clark State College brings a higher-education presence, and the Port of Lewiston, Idaho's only seaport, supports distribution and logistics. The terrain rises steeply from the downtown riverfront into the surrounding hills, and the city has a limited two-route transit system with connections across the river to Clarkston, Washington. Community events like the Dogwood Festival, Hot August Nights, and the Lewiston Roundup bring periodic activity. Housing in the school's zip code is more affordable than the Idaho state benchmark, sitting closer to the national median, with rents that are modest for the region. Mortgage rates remain in the mid-six-percent range nationally.
Pinecrest's STEAM focus and lottery admission model are matters of family preference. Some parents will be drawn to a science-and-arts emphasis within a small, newly formed community, while others may prefer the longer track record and broader program base of the established Lewiston School District, whose seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and high school are spread across the city. The publicly reported information indicates that Pinecrest plans to grow through eighth grade, which would eventually give it a fuller K-8 pathway, but at present the school covers only the early elementary span. Families considering enrollment should weigh the appeal of a small, mission-driven charter against the reality that the school is still building its academic track record and that state accountability data is not yet available in enough detail to judge outcomes confidently. Asking the school for its internal assessment results, growth targets, and plans for middle-grade expansion would help fill in what the public data does not yet show.
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