Original Research by School Decision on Benjamin Franklin Academy Chartered Public School (h)
Benjamin Franklin Academy Chartered Public School sits on Chichester Road in Loudon, a rural New Hampshire town spread across roughly forty-six square miles. The school is a free public charter option, state-approved in late 2022 and open to students since September 2023. Its stated mission pairs a content-rich liberal arts curriculum with hands-on learning in industrial, artisan, and agricultural trades. That blend of classical academics and practical trades is the distinguishing feature families should weigh, and it fills a niche the area's traditional public schools do not emphasize.
What is available in the data paints a picture of a school in its earliest days. The high school portion serves grades nine through twelve, yet the current enrollment is extremely small and concentrated entirely in ninth grade, with no students yet in the upper grades. This is consistent with a charter school that opened only recently and is building upward one grade at a time. The student body is reported as entirely white. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education counts, and English learner figures are all missing, so there is no way to characterize the economic or special-population makeup from available records. A parent considering this school should ask the administration directly about how it identifies and supports students with disabilities and students from lower-income households, since none of that information appears in the public data we reviewed.
No state assessment results are available. No graduation rate exists, which is expected for a school that has not yet enrolled a senior class. Course access, staffing, attendance, and discipline data are also absent. These gaps reflect the school's newness and the fact that it has not yet generated a testing or outcomes record. They should not be read as weaknesses so much as evidence that the school is still establishing itself. The same applies to program offerings, which are not broken out in the data sections beyond the general description of a liberal arts and trades curriculum found in publicly reported sources.
Loudon itself is quiet, car-dependent rural New England. The town is widely known as the home of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a NASCAR venue that operates seasonally and shapes the town's identity, but the everyday texture is spread-out residential living with small manufacturers and greenhouse operations providing local employment. There is no public transportation and no rail service. The compact village center along the Soucook River is the most walkable cluster, but most daily life requires a car. Interstate access is reasonably close, with two exits within a few miles. The housing market in the school's zip code sits near the state benchmark and above the national one, with modest year-over-year appreciation. Median household income nationally has been trending upward, and unemployment has held steady at a low level, which gives the broader region a stable economic backdrop. Families moving to the area should expect rural quiet, a need to drive for most services, and home prices that track with New Hampshire's generally elevated market.
For Loudon families, the traditional public pathway sends middle and high school students to Merrimack Valley schools in neighboring Penacook. Benjamin Franklin Academy offers an alternative for those who want a smaller, trades-integrated environment without paying private school tuition. The trade-off is clear: the school is unproven on every measurable front, and its tiny current enrollment means a very small peer group. A parent drawn to the curriculum should visit, talk with staff about how the upper grades will take shape, and ask directly about assessment plans, special education services, and how the school intends to grow. The concept is distinctive. The evidence base to judge its execution does not yet exist.
See more original research from School Decision →