Original Research by School Decision on River Heights Academy
River Heights Academy was a public charter school on Olmstead Road in Flat Rock, Michigan, serving students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The school operated under River Heights Academy School District and was run by Distinctive Learning. It closed in June 2023, so this is not an active enrollment option for families today. Flat Rock Community Schools subsequently purchased the building using capital project funds to house an Early Childhood Center, which offers programs including the Great Start Readiness Program and tuition-based preschool. A parent looking at this address now would be looking at a different entity than the one whose data appears here.
Because the school has closed, its academic record is what it is, frozen in time. The state testing picture from the final reported year is extremely thin. Across grades three through eight in math and English language arts, nearly every grade level shows zero students tested, and the state suppressed those results. The one exception is sixth grade, where a small group of students sat for both the M-STEP math and ELA assessments. In that grade, no students reached the proficient level in either subject, and the reported proficiency rate fell within the lowest reporting band. Science and social studies results for grades five and eight were also suppressed with no test takers recorded. This pattern of empty grade levels and suppressed results is consistent with a school that was winding down or had very few students in its final year, though the data itself does not state a specific reason. There is no graduation rate to report, which is expected for a school whose highest grade was eighth.
Enrollment and demographic data were not available. We have no figures for total enrollment, racial or ethnic composition, free or reduced-price lunch participation, special education rates, or English learner counts. The grade band listed in the directory as a placeholder does not reflect the pre-K through eight span that publicly reported sources describe. No staffing, attendance, discipline, or course access data was provided either.
Flat Rock sits in southern Wayne County, with a small portion extending into Monroe County. It is a small city with a manufacturing heritage anchored by the Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant, the production home of the Ford Mustang. The community markets itself as maintaining a small-town feel while offering services and amenities of a larger community. US Route 24, or Telegraph Road, runs through the center of the city, and Interstate 75 borders it on the east. The city is one of five Trail Towns along the nationally designated Huron River Water Trail, with bike trails connecting to the Downriver Linked Greenways and Iron Belle Trails. A downtown commercial corridor along Telegraph Road has been the focus of revitalization efforts. The city sits within a short regional drive of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Toledo, and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
The housing market in the school's ZIP code shows typical values above the state midpoint but below the national midpoint, with modest year-over-year appreciation. Rents in the area are moderate. Publicly reported sources note a tight housing supply in Flat Rock with low vacancy rates, and a median household income above the national average. The broader economic environment features mortgage rates in the mid-six percent range and a national unemployment rate holding steady.
For a parent encountering this school's name, the essential fact is that it no longer operates. The building now belongs to Flat Rock Community Schools and hosts early childhood programs. The academic data from its final year is too sparse to support any meaningful judgment about the education it provided. Families seeking charter options in the Flat Rock area would need to look elsewhere, and the local public school district, Flat Rock Community Schools, is the entity now operating at this site.
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