The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in Math. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Suzanne M Smith Elementary School
Suzanne M Smith Elementary School sits on South Levant Road in Levant, a small rural town in Penobscot County about nine miles west of Bangor. The town has long functioned as a residential commuter community, with scattered housing along country roads replacing the agricultural fields and second-growth forests that once defined the area. There is no walkable downtown or concentrated commercial district. Civic life centers on the town office, the Heritage Library, a recreation department, and the natural surroundings of Black Stream and undeveloped woodland. For families considering this school, the setting is quiet, car-dependent, and rooted in outdoor recreation rather than suburban convenience.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of RSU 87/MSAD 23. Enrollment is modest, spread fairly evenly across the early grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students identifying as two or more races and a handful from other backgrounds. About half the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives a sense of the mixed economic composition of the community. Data on English learners and special education enrollment was not available, so those profiles cannot be described here.
On the most recent Maine Through Year Assessment, math and English language arts results were solid. In both subjects, roughly two-thirds of tested students in grades three through eight reached proficiency, a level that sits comfortably above what many rural Maine elementary schools post. Participation was high in both subjects. These are the school's clearest academic strengths and suggest that core instruction in reading and math is working for a majority of students.
Science results tell a different story. On the Maine Science Assessment, fewer than one in five tested students reached proficiency. Only a small group of students sat for the science test, which is typical for elementary schools where science is tested at a single grade level, so the result reflects a narrow slice of the student body rather than the whole school. Still, the proficiency rate is low, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how science instruction is structured across the grade bands and what supports are in place.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. The school does not have reported figures for attendance, discipline, staffing ratios, course access, or civil-rights indicators. Program offerings were also not available. This is a thin data profile, and several of the gaps reflect what is typical for a small elementary school in a rural district rather than any sign of concern.
Levant itself is growing steadily, with new residential development continuing to convert former farmland into home sites. The housing market is more affordable than the Maine state benchmark and below the national figure, with median listing prices in the broader Penobscot County market sitting below the state's typical home value. Inventory has been rising, and homes are taking longer to sell than they did a year ago, which may give incoming families more breathing room than they would find in tighter markets closer to Bangor. Mortgage costs remain elevated at current interest rates, but relative to state and national prices, the area offers a comparatively accessible entry point for ownership.
The district brief for RSU 87/MSAD 23 did not surface any parent-relevant changes in recent years, so there is nothing to report on restructuring, program launches, or budget shifts.
For a family weighing Suzanne M Smith, the picture is straightforward. It is a small, rural elementary school serving a close-knit commuter town, with dependable results in the core subjects of math and reading and a student population that reflects the working and middle-income mix of the surrounding community. The science results are a soft spot worth asking about. Beyond that, the available data runs thin, and a visit or call to the school would be the practical next step for anyone wanting to understand classroom culture, staffing, and what the daily experience looks like for children in the earliest grades.
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