Inter-lakes Elementary School, Meredith NH

Original Research by School Decision on Inter-lakes Elementary School

Inter-Lakes Elementary School sits in Meredith, a Lakes Region town on Lake Winnipesaukee with a split personality. Meredith Village, at the head of Meredith Bay, is the commercial hub where shops, restaurants, and the Mill Falls Marketplace cluster around a restored waterfall and canal. The town draws summer tourists who swell the population seasonally, but year-round it functions as a working small town. Outside the village center, the landscape turns rural and auto-dependent. Meredith is part of the Inter-Lakes Cooperative School District, which also serves Center Harbor and Sandwich, and the school serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade.

The school's enrollment is moderate for its grade band, with fairly even distribution across grades and a slight increase in class sizes in the upper elementary years. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available, so those profiles cannot be described here.

On New Hampshire's state assessments, the most recent results show a clear pattern. In both math and English language arts, third graders performed strongest, with roughly half or slightly more reaching proficiency. ELA results held fairly steady across grades three through six, with about half of students proficient at each level. Math told a different story. Proficiency dropped noticeably in fifth and sixth grade compared to third and fourth, falling to the lower end of the range. Fifth-grade science was the weakest result, with only about a third of tested students reaching proficiency. Participation was high across all grades and subjects. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a recent shift or a longer-standing pattern. The decline in math proficiency from the lower to upper elementary grades is something a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly as students prepare to transition to the middle-high school campus.

No graduation rate applies here, since the school serves only through sixth grade. Data on discipline, staffing, attendance, and course access was not provided, so those aspects of school environment cannot be addressed. The school is not a charter or magnet school. Title I status was not reported.

Housing in Meredith is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well above the New Hampshire median and far above the national figure, with a price-to-income ratio that points to a stretched market for working families. This reflects Meredith's desirability as a lakeside community. No rental data was available. The housing cost shapes who can realistically settle in the district, and a family considering the area should weigh this alongside the school's academic profile.

At the district level, voters in 2025 faced a warrant article seeking bond funding for boiler replacements at Inter-Lakes Elementary and the middle-high school, plus HVAC improvements at the secondary campus. A separate article proposed the operating budget for the coming school year. These decisions affect facilities conditions at the elementary school and property tax obligations across the three member towns, Meredith, Center Harbor, and Sandwich. Whether the bond passed is not confirmed in the available records.

Inter-Lakes Elementary offers a conventional public school pathway in a resort-town setting where housing costs run high. Its academic results are middling, with relative strength in early-grade instruction and a softening in upper-elementary math and fifth-grade science that warrants attention. Families drawn to Meredith for the lakeside lifestyle and small-town character will find a school that serves a fairly homogeneous student body, participates well in state testing, and sits within a district actively investing in its physical plant.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 57% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 49% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 38% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 43% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 62% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 51% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 52% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 37% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolInter-Lakes Cooperative School District, 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

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income60%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income61%41 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income53%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income56%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income63%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income57%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income45%32 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income26%Higher-income42%16 pp gap