The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Heartwood Public Charter School
Heartwood Public Charter School sits on Davenport Road in Jefferson, a small, low-density town scattered across several villages in New Hampshire's White Mountain region. The school opened in the summer of 2022 as a tuition-free public charter option for North Country families, starting with kindergarten through fifth grade and planning to grow into a full K-through-8 program. Publicly reported information indicates that grade span expansion was complete by 2025, though current enrollment shows no students yet in seventh or eighth grade, so the upper grades are still filling in.
The school is very small, with total enrollment in the range of several dozen students spread across the lower and middle grades. Class sizes at each grade level are modest, often in the single digits. The student body is nearly entirely white, with a small number of students identified as two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
Heartwood uses a nature and place-based education model, integrating experiential learning and community service into its curriculum. This is a defining feature of the school and the primary academic distinction from the traditional public option in town, Jefferson's K-through-7 elementary school in the White Mountains Regional School District. Families comparing the two are choosing between a conventional district pathway and a smaller, intentionally experiential charter environment.
State assessment results for the most recent school year are largely suppressed because of the very small number of students at each tested grade level. Most grades had no tested students reported. The one grade with published results was sixth grade, where a small group of students sat for the NH SAS. In math, the proficiency rate was low. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was modestly higher but still below what most families would hope to see. With only a handful of students tested, a single child's performance moves the results substantially, so these figures should be read with that context in mind rather than treated as a stable trend. A parent may want to look into how the school supports students who are not yet meeting state benchmarks, particularly in math, and what growth measures the school tracks internally.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. No data was available on course access, staffing ratios, attendance, discipline, or Title I status. Program offerings beyond the stated nature-based model were not provided, so the narrative here cannot speak to specific electives, interventions, or extracurriculars. The school's own materials describe community integration and service as core elements, but the data supplied does not include details on how those elements are structured day to day.
Jefferson itself is a rural, car-dependent town with no public transportation and no concentrated downtown. Civic functions and businesses are spread along rural roads, with US Route 2 serving as the main corridor between Lancaster and Randolph. The largest employer is Santa's Village, a seasonal Christmas-themed amusement park. Other employers include a trucking company, a logging operation, a convenience store and deli, and several motels and campgrounds. The nearest hospital, Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster, is a short drive away. The town has a volunteer fire department and part-time police. Housing is predominantly single-family detached, and the town relies on private wells and septic systems. Jefferson adopted a Master Plan in 2022 and has seen slow, steady population growth over the past several decades.
The housing market in the school's zip code sits below the New Hampshire state benchmark and close to the national figure, making it relatively more affordable than much of the state. Rental data was not available. Current mortgage rates remain elevated by recent historical standards, and the broader economic picture includes a moderate national unemployment rate and steady median household income growth over the past decade.
Heartwood fits a family looking for a small, experiential, outdoor-oriented charter school in a quiet rural setting. The trade-offs are real: the school is young, the student body is tiny, and the available state testing data is limited and not strong where it is reported. Families drawn to the nature-based model will want to ask the school directly about academic support, middle-grade expansion, and how it measures student progress beyond what state tests capture.
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