The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in Science. The lowest is 35% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on John R Rodger Elementary School
John R Rodger Elementary is the elementary school for Bellaire Public Schools, serving kindergarten through fifth grade in a small rural village that doubles as the Antrim County seat. The school sits along a state highway in Bellaire, a compact community bisected by the Intermediate River, where a downtown of restaurants and shops clusters along Bridge and Cayuga streets. Bellaire is known publicly for Short's Brewing Company and its proximity to Shanty Creek Resort and several golf courses. Tourism shapes the local economy deeply. The permanent population is small and has drifted downward over recent decades, but summer visitors and vacation-home owners swell the community seasonally. Home values have climbed despite the population trend, reflecting the area's appeal as a second-home destination. For a family considering this school, that context matters: the housing market runs above the Michigan state benchmark and sits near the national one, so buying into the area costs more than in much of the state, though the cost of living index for the village itself runs low.
The school is small, with roughly two dozen or fewer students per grade level. The student body is almost entirely white, with a very small number of students identifying as Hispanic or multiracial. About half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so those figures are unavailable here. This is a conventional public elementary school, not a charter or magnet, and it feeds into the Bellaire Public Schools district for upper grades.
On state assessments, the most recent M-STEP results show a mixed but improving picture as students move up through the grades. Third-grade math and ELA proficiency sit in the lower range, with roughly a third of tested students meeting the bar in each subject. Fourth-grade math dips lower, while fourth-grade ELA rises somewhat. Fifth grade tells a stronger story: math proficiency reaches the mid-range, and ELA proficiency clears the halfway mark among tested students. Fifth-grade science is a relative bright spot, with a slim majority of students scoring proficient. Social studies lands in the middle range for fifth grade. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it above the midpoint among districts in Antrim County, a set of five comparable districts where the school sits just past the middle of the pack.
The pattern of stronger fifth-grade results suggests students grow as they move through the building, though without multi-year trend data, it is hard to confirm whether that reflects genuine growth or cohort differences. The small number of students tested in each grade means a single student's performance shifts the picture noticeably, so parents may want to view these results alongside direct conversations with the school about classroom-level progress.
Several pieces of information were not available in the data provided. There were no reported program offerings, no staffing figures, no attendance or chronic absenteeism rates, and no discipline data. The district brief turned up no parent-relevant district changes from recent reporting. IEP and English learner rates were missing from the enrollment data. And because this is an elementary school serving only grades K through 5, there is no graduation rate to report; that measure applies to high schools.
Bellaire itself is auto-dependent, with walkability limited to the compact downtown core. There is no public transit system. The school district offices appear to sit within or near the village center rather than on a separated campus, which is typical of a town this size. For families drawn to northern Michigan lake country, a small school where teachers likely know every child by name, and a community where civic life centers on the courthouse, the library, and the river, John R Rodger offers a quiet, conventional public elementary pathway. The academic results are middling for the region but trend upward in the upper grades, and the school's size means attention is close at hand.
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