The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Math. The lowest is 64% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Phillips Elementary Sch
Phillips Elementary School sits on Rangeley Road in the small rural town of Phillips, part of RSU 58/MSAD 58 in Franklin County. It serves pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, which makes it an early-childhood and primary school. The town itself is quiet rural country, built along the Sandy River with a history of lumbering and milling that has mostly faded. Civic life clusters around Main and Park Streets, where the town office, volunteer fire department, and transfer station sit. The school is woven into this small community rather than standing apart on a separate campus. Phillips is very low-density, car-dependent, and experiencing slight population decline rather than growth. No major employers were identified in publicly reported sources, and the local economy leans on municipal government, small businesses, and a heritage railroad museum. A microloan program exists to encourage small business development, but the overall development profile is static to declining.
The school is small for its grade band, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small handful of students identifying as Hispanic or two or more races. The school does not report English learner or special education figures, so those populations are unknown from the available data. Given that this is a pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade school, certain metrics simply do not apply. There is no graduation rate, no high school course access data, and no college or career pathway information, because the school does not serve those grades.
What is available is state assessment results from the Maine Through Year Assessment for the tested grades. Since Phillips Elementary only runs through grade four, the tested students are in grades three and four. In math, a solid majority of tested students reached proficiency, and in English language arts, a comparable majority did the same. Participation was full among the students tested. These are genuinely strong results for a small rural school with a high proportion of students from economically disadvantaged households. The proficiency rates sit well above what one might expect given the economic context, and they suggest the school is delivering effective core instruction in the early grades. No trend data was available, so it is unclear whether these results represent a stable pattern or a recent shift. A parent may want to ask the school how performance has moved over time and how the school supports students who are not yet proficient.
No multi-year academic trend data was provided, so there is no way to characterize whether results are improving, holding steady, or slipping. The average scale score was not reported for either subject, which limits the picture to proficiency rates alone. A parent looking for a more detailed sense of where students stand relative to peers statewide would need to seek that from the school or district directly.
The housing market in Phillips is modest by state and national standards. Typical home values sit well below the Maine state benchmark and below the national benchmark, and the price-to-income ratio suggests relative affordability for the area, though current mortgage rates make monthly costs a real consideration. Rental data was not available, so renters will need to look elsewhere for a sense of local rental conditions. For families considering buying, the area offers a lower-cost entry point than much of Maine, but the trade-off is a very rural setting with limited local commerce and services.
The district brief for RSU 58/MSAD 58 turned up little of lasting impact in publicly reported sources, so there is no recent district-level change or strategic priority to relay. Phillips Elementary appears to be a steady, small-town primary school doing strong work on its state assessments, serving an economically disadvantaged population in a quiet, rural, car-dependent community. Families drawn to rural life and small class sizes may find it a good fit. Those who want richer program offerings, specialized services, or a more walkable environment will need to weigh what this setting can and cannot provide.
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