Bonnieville Elementary School, Bonnieville KY

Original Research by School Decision on Bonnieville Elementary School

Bonnieville Elementary School sits in a very small rural community that recently made the unusual decision to dissolve its own city government. In November 2024, residents voted to turn the town into an unincorporated part of Hart County, driven by a wish to shed annual city property taxes. The vote passed by a slim margin and took effect the following month. For a family considering this school, that backdrop matters. The town of Bonnieville is tiny, strung along U.S. Route 31W near an Interstate 65 exit, with no walkable downtown, no major employers, and a volunteer fire department whose grant eligibility was affected by the dissolution. Daily life is car-dependent. The most notable development project is a planned nature preserve that is not yet open. Housing values in the area sit well below national and state benchmarks, and the local economy shows modest costs relative to incomes.

The school itself serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, a broad span that means a child can spend most of their K-12 career in one building. Enrollment leans heavily white, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic reality of the community. The school is a regular public school in the Hart County district, and it is not a charter or magnet school.

State testing data from the most recent school year provides a mixed picture that a parent will want to weigh carefully. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates across tested grades ran below the midpoint of what one would typically see. Grade six posted the strongest result in reading, while grades three and four landed lower. In math, the pattern was similar but more uneven. Grade five showed the highest math proficiency among the tested grades, while grade eight recorded the weakest, a notable drop that a parent moving a child into middle grades may want to ask about directly. Science results for grades four and seven were suppressed due to small testing counts, so there is no usable picture in that subject. Social studies was tested in fifth and eighth grades, with moderate results.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate, and no data on chronic absenteeism or discipline was available in the record. A parent may want to contact the school for context on student support, special education services, and English learner programs, as those counts were also missing from the data.

Because Bonnieville Elementary is the only school in its district at this grade span, the system that would normally compare it to other Hart County districts cannot generate a meaningful neighborhood comparison. The school stands alone in that set. That makes it harder to benchmark its performance against a peer group within the county.

For a family that values a small, rural setting and is comfortable with a contracting local government that no longer provides municipal services, Bonnieville Elementary offers a straightforward pathway from early childhood through middle school. The academic results suggest that a parent should be prepared to supplement or advocate for extra support, particularly as students move into the upper grades, where math outcomes dropped off. The community is quiet, car-dependent, and low-cost, but it is also a place where residents have voted to end city services rather than pay for them, a signal about local priorities that may matter to a newcomer deciding whether to put down roots.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 30% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 42%

even with state median

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 31% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 34% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 36% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 46% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 46% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 48% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 44% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 42% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 37% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 38% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median

This schoolHart 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-income27%Higher-income43%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income50%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income50%11 pp gap