The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hollis School
Hollis School sits on River Road in the rural York County town of Hollis, Maine, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of RSU 06, also known as MSAD 6. The school draws from a community that publicly describes itself as a bedroom town of Portland. Most working residents commute to jobs in Portland, South Portland, Saco, Biddeford, and Sanford, while Hollis itself retains a small employment base anchored by a handful of family-run businesses and a couple of larger employers, including a precision sheet metal shop and a Poland Spring Water bottling plant. The town spreads across roughly thirty-three square miles with no single walkable downtown, its historic village centers, Hollis Centre, Bar Mills, North Hollis, and Bonny Eagle Falls, dispersed along the Saco River and Cook's Brook rather than clustered into one civic core. Daily life here is car-dependent.
The community is growing faster than most of its neighbors, with proximity to Portland driving residential demand, and the town's own Comprehensive Plan projects continued population growth and an aging resident profile. Housing has become less affordable, with median home values sitting above both state and national benchmarks and a price-to-income ratio that suggests a stretched market for families trying to buy in. Conserved open space, tree growth, and farmland parcels limit some development, which preserves rural character but also constrains supply. The median household income in Maine has been climbing modestly, and unemployment has held steady at a moderate level, so the economic backdrop is stable even as housing pressure persists.
At Hollis School, the enrollment is modest for an elementary building, with class sizes distributed fairly evenly across the grades. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of children identifying as Hispanic, multiracial, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Black. A small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, below what many rural Maine schools see. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those population details remain unknown here.
On the most recent Maine Through Year Assessment, English language arts stood out as the school's strongest subject, with a clear majority of tested students reaching proficiency or above. Math results were more mixed, landing near the midpoint, with about half of tested students proficient. Science proficiency was markedly lower, and because science is assessed only at certain grade levels, far fewer students sat for that exam. Participation was full across all three subjects. Average scale scores were not reported, and no multi-year trend data was available, so there is no way to read whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time. The science result is the area where a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what instructional shifts or supports are in place for that subject.
Because Hollis School ends at fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the school does not have its own AP, dual-credit, or career pathway offerings, those come later in the MSAD 6 pipeline. After fifth grade, students move on to Bonny Eagle Middle School and then Bonny Eagle High School, both of which serve the broader district and sit outside Hollis town boundaries. A new middle school is under construction to replace an aging facility, with completion expected soon, a project that will shape the learning environment for Hollis children as they transition out of elementary school. The district has also been recognized for improvements in special education and dyslexia screening, along with evidence-based reading instruction implemented across its elementary schools. The most recent district budget passed with an increase driven by special education costs, transportation, and negotiated salaries, which affects property taxes across the district's five towns.
The Hollis Public Library, housed in the former home of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm author Kate Douglas Wiggin, serves as a civic and cultural landmark. The Saco River and Cook's Brook define the natural landscape, and substantial acreage sits in conservation programs. For a family considering this school, the picture is of a small, predominantly white elementary school in a growing rural town with solid reading results, adequate math performance, and a science outcome that warrants attention, all set in a community where housing costs are climbing but the rural character and proximity to Portland remain strong draws.
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