Suttons Bay Elementary Middle School, Suttons Bay MI

Original Research by School Decision on Suttons Bay Elementary Middle School

Suttons Bay Elementary Middle School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the village of Suttons Bay, on the eastern shore of Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula. It is the younger-grades building within Suttons Bay Public Schools, a small district rooted in a tourism- and agriculture-based community about a short drive north of Traverse City. The village itself is compact and genuinely walkable, with a downtown of shops, galleries, and restaurants along M-22, a waterfront marina and public beach, a historic art-house theater, and access to regional biking trails. Wine country and cherry orchards define the surrounding landscape, and the population skews older, which shapes the civic feel of the place.

The school enrolls a modest number of students across its grade bands. Its student body is notably diverse for a small northern Michigan village. Nearly half of students are white, with a substantial Hispanic population and a meaningful American Indian or Alaska Native presence. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting real economic need in a community where the local economy runs heavily on seasonal tourism and agricultural work. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not available, so those dimensions of the student population could not be assessed here.

Academically, the most recent state assessment results paint a mixed but telling picture. English language arts is the school's relative bright spot. Proficiency in the upper elementary and middle grades reaches moderate levels, with sixth and eighth grade standing out as the strongest. By contrast, math proficiency is consistently low across every tested grade, and fifth grade science and social studies results fall in a very low reported range. Eighth grade science and social studies recover to more moderate levels. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Leelanau County, where most peer districts post substantially higher averages. A parent evaluating this school may want to look into the school's math instruction and academic support strategies in more detail.

No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a decline, a plateau, or something in between. Participation rates were also missing from the data provided.

Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence reflects the grade band rather than any gap in performance. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Information on program offerings, course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance was not provided, so those areas could not be addressed.

The housing market around Suttons Bay is expensive relative to incomes. Typical home values in the zip code sit well above both the state and national benchmarks, and the price-to-income ratio is high, meaning a family buying locally would need a strong income or substantial equity to manage a purchase. Rents, where available, are more manageable relative to income than mortgages at current rates, but renting options in a small tourism-driven village may be limited. The broader Leelanau County housing market has seen some recent softening in values, which could modestly ease entry for buyers.

What this school offers is a small, racially and economically diverse community school in a picturesque, walkable lakeside village with strong cultural and natural amenities. The academic results, particularly in math, are a concern that warrants direct conversation with the school. Families drawn to the area's character and willing to engage closely with their child's education may find a welcoming setting, but the proficiency data makes clear that academic outcomes here lag behind neighboring Leelanau County districts.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 22% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 17% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 23% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 19% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 18% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 22% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 30% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 19% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 46% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 57% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 48% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 52% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median

This schoolSuttons Bay Public Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income12%Higher-income50%39 pp gap