The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in Science. The lowest is 39% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on St Charles Elementary School
St. Charles Elementary School sits in a small, entirely rural village in Saginaw County, a place that grew up where the north and south branches of the Bad River and Swan Creek once met to float lumber downstream. Today the village retains a quiet small-town character, with a few stores and small businesses clustered along Spruce and Saginaw streets. The St. Charles District Library, the Village Office, and a city park with a small aviary anchor civic life. Birdwatchers know the area for its proximity to the Shiawassee River State Game Area and the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. The Saginaw Valley Rail Trail and Ringwood Forest offer recreation along the river, and the Hartley Outdoor Education Center, a Saginaw ISD facility, sits nearby on Beaver Road.
The village has been losing population steadily. The 2020 census counted fewer residents than in prior decades, and estimates through 2025 show the decline continuing. No major new housing developments or commercial expansions surfaced in publicly reported sources. Housing here is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the Michigan statewide figure and far below the national one, and the price-to-income ratio is modest. Rental data was not available in the payload. For a family buying, the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is within reach for area incomes, though current mortgage rates remain elevated nationally.
St. Charles Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school within St. Charles Community Schools. Enrollment is modest, consistent with what you would expect for a village of this size. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding community. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments for the most recent school year, the school's results paint a mixed but generally middling picture. Math proficiency holds fairly steady across grades three through six, with roughly two-fifths of tested students reaching proficiency in each grade. English language arts shows more variation. Third grade proficiency is notably low, while fourth grade jumps to about half of students proficient, with fifth and sixth grades landing in between. Science, tested only in fifth grade, stands out as a relative bright spot, with a majority of students proficient. Social studies, also a fifth-grade test, lands lower. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among districts in Saginaw County, a comparison set that includes about fifteen reporting districts. That places St. Charles Elementary in a respectable position relative to its neighbors, though well short of the top of the county range. Participation rates were not reported for any test, so it is unclear whether all enrolled students were tested.
Because the school serves only through sixth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. The payload did not include program offerings, course access details, staffing ratios, discipline data, or attendance figures, so those dimensions of the school experience cannot be described. A parent wanting a fuller picture of classroom size, teacher experience, extracurriculars, or behavioral climate would want to ask the school directly.
The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes from recent meetings or initiatives that met a lasting-impact threshold, so there is nothing to report on that front. The village itself has no major employers identified in publicly available sources. The village government employs a small staff, and the surrounding area is largely defined by its natural amenities and rural residential character.
What this school appears to offer is a small, community-rooted elementary education in an affordable rural setting, with academic results that hold their own within the county but show clear room for growth, especially in early literacy. Families drawn to quiet, small-town life near outdoor recreation and wildlife areas may find the setting appealing. Those seeking richer program offerings or stronger academic attainment may want to look closely at what the school and district are doing to address the lower proficiency numbers, particularly in third-grade reading, before deciding.
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