Greenlawn Elementary School, Bainbridge NY

Original Research by School Decision on Greenlawn Elementary School

Greenlawn Elementary School is a small rural school serving grades two through six in Bainbridge, a compact village in Chenango County's Southern Tier, situated between Binghamton and Oneonta. The school sits within the village's historic district, making it part of the civic and downtown fabric rather than isolated on the edge of town. The school currently enrolls a modest enrollment across its grade band, with a majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic realities of the community.

On state assessments, Greenlawn's results show proficiency gaps across both math and English language arts. In math, third-grade students achieved about the midpoint on state testing, but proficiency rates in grades four, five, and six all fell well below half of tested students. English language arts showed a similar pattern, with stronger performance in fifth grade but consistently lower proficiency in the other grades. In science, tested at grade five, fewer than half of students scored proficient. When viewed across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency sits in the top quartile of schools in Chenango County, a positioning that reflects the county's relatively low baseline rather than strong absolute performance. Participation rates on state assessments were high, ranging from roughly to nearly complete across grades and subjects, indicating robust test-taking compliance.

The school is part of the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District, which serves the town and the adjacent Guilford area. The district recently secured voter approval for a substantial capital project that began upgrades to all three school buildings and infrastructure with no additional tax burden. That investment covers HVAC replacement, an artificial turf athletic field with a resurfaced track, kitchen and facility renovations, and parking and sidewalk improvements, representing a multi-year commitment to the physical plant. At the same time, the district has faced recent budget pressure. For the upcoming school year, the district navigated a meaningful budget gap driven by rising health insurance and special education costs against the state's property tax cap, ultimately adopting a modest overall spending increase with a matching tax levy increase. This tension between facility investment and budget pressure is the current fiscal environment families would enter.

Bainbridge itself is a small rural village organized around a walkable historic core on Main Street and Park Place, with a mix of century-old buildings, civic institutions, restaurants, and retail. The village anchors around the public library, town parks including river access and a community pool, and regular civic events. Interstate 88 connects the area to larger regional centers. Home values in the Bainbridge zip code are relatively modest and remain below both state and national benchmarks, with affordability ratios more favorable than the national average, though employment is largely concentrated in small retail and service businesses, with the school district itself a major local employer. No fixed-route public transit serves the village.

A parent evaluating Greenlawn should view this school as part of a small rural district with moderate academic proficiency and real fiscal constraints, anchored in a tight-knit village community where the school is physically integrated into downtown rather than set apart. The recent facility investment signals district commitment to the physical environment, while the budget pressures suggest families should stay attentive to district fiscal health as it evolves.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 58%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 589%

School 89% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median

This schoolBAINBRIDGE-GUILFORD CENTRAL 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-income33%Higher-income44%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income45%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income57%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income60%33 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income52%Higher-income64%13 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income55%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income57%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income63%39 pp gap