Original Research by School Decision on The Sterling School
The Sterling School is a public alternative school in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, serving students in grades six through twelve as part of the Montgomery County district. Its designation as an alternative school means it is set up for students whose academic or behavioral needs are not well met in a traditional comprehensive school. That mission shapes nearly everything about the place, from its small population to the way its performance data appears.
With an overall enrollment that is quite small for a middle-and-high-school combination, the student body skews heavily toward the upper grades. The school has just a handful of students in the middle school years and grows noticeably larger at each high school grade, peaking at the senior class. This pattern is common in alternative settings, where students often transition into the school later in their educational path rather than starting in sixth grade.
The student population is overwhelmingly white, with only a very small number of students who are Black, Hispanic, or multiracial. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community where economic need is concentrated. This figure is notably high and gives a clear signal about the household circumstances many of the students come from. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent who wants to understand those populations would need to ask the school directly.
Because of the school’s alternative status and very small testing cohorts, state assessment results for math, reading, science, and social studies are suppressed for privacy reasons. No proficiency rates or scale scores are reported for any grade or subject. This is a straightforward consequence of having too few tested students to release the data without identifying individuals. It does not mean the school is not administering the assessments, only that the results cannot be publicly shared. A parent interested in academic performance will need to have a direct conversation with the school about how students are progressing, since the usual public metrics are absent.
The school’s overall graduation rate is also not reported, which is typical for alternative schools that may have non-traditional completion pathways. This is another gap a parent would want to investigate. What the school offers in terms of coursework, credit recovery, career and technical education, or college preparation is not detailed in the available data, so there is no information about AP, dual credit, or specialized programs. That absence is meaningful because many alternative schools emphasize flexible pathways to a diploma, but without specifics it is hard to know what is available.
The Sterling School is located in Mount Sterling, the county seat of Montgomery County, a small city with a historic downtown and a mix of local shops, restaurants, and cultural offerings like the Gateway Regional Arts Center and the annual Court Days festival. The downtown core is walkable, with Main Street Park and First Friday markets drawing people in seasonally, but the community as a whole is auto-dependent, with most residents driving alone to work. Housing values in the area are near the state average, and there has been modest population and income growth in recent years, though no major new housing developments were identified in available sources. The city has a comprehensive plan and has pursued downtown revitalization, and the real property tax rate was recently reported as the lowest in a number of years.
No significant district-level changes, such as property tax adjustments, new curriculum adoptions, or boundary redraws, were found in the review of the Montgomery County district. The district brief turned up only routine announcements and recognitions, so the structural environment appears stable for now.
The Sterling School fits a specific role within the community. It is not a comprehensive middle or high school that offers a full slate of extracurriculars and a broad academic menu. It is an alternative setting, likely designed for students who have struggled in mainstream classrooms, need credit recovery, or require smaller classes and more individualized support. The suppressed test scores and missing graduation rate mean that standard academic comparisons are off the table. A parent considering this school would need to visit, talk to staff about the specific program, and understand what services and pathways are actually in place. For a student who is not thriving in a larger school environment, this could be a supportive fit, but the available data does not answer the most common questions about proficiency and outcomes directly.
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