Cairo-durham Elementary School, Cairo NY

Original Research by School Decision on Cairo-durham Elementary School

Cairo-Durham Elementary School is a pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade public school on Main Street in Cairo, a rural town in the southern Catskills region of Greene County. The school serves a community of roughly mid-size enrollment drawn largely from the town and surrounding rural hamlets; about a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting moderate economic need. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and Black students.

On state assessments administered in the most recent school year, proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science show a mixed profile. In math, fourth-grade students performed strongest, with about eight in ten meeting or exceeding state standards. Third and fifth graders posted more modest results, with about six in ten proficient or above. In English language arts, the pattern inverted: fifth graders performed better, with about seven in ten meeting standards, while third graders posted the lowest rate at under half proficient. Fourth-grade ELA proficiency sat in between at roughly six in ten. Fifth-grade science proficiency, the only grade where science is tested, showed about half the cohort meeting standards. Participation in testing was generally strong across grade levels and subjects, with no major gaps in test-taking rates.

Among the districts in Greene County, Cairo-Durham Elementary's overall proficiency index sits in the top quartile, meaning its mean performance across tested subjects and grades outpaces all or most comparable schools in the county.

The district recently completed a major capital renovation project that modernized both school buildings. At the elementary level, work included HVAC upgrades to bring air conditioning into classrooms, asbestos removal, and accessible bathroom upgrades. The middle and high school building received science classroom renovations with new lab equipment, a new media center, expanded remote-learning spaces, and a centralized secure entry point. These facility improvements represent recent tangible investment in school infrastructure families would encounter.

Looking forward, the district has proposed another substantial capital improvement project addressing structural needs such as foundation and roof work, ventilation replacement, fuel tank upgrades, and an auditorium renovation at the secondary building. A community vote on this project was scheduled, meaning families considering the school should anticipate that facility work may continue.

The district's property tax levy has risen in recent budget cycles, driven by salaries, benefits, special education tuition, and transportation costs. For homeowners, this reflects a budget trend parents may want to track when evaluating long-term housing affordability in the Cairo area.

The school sits within a town characterized as a suburban-rural blend with a walkable Main Street hamlet center alongside forested and agricultural terrain. Angelo Canna Town Park and the Cairo Nature Center provide outdoor recreation. The housing market in the area shows moderate value with affordability metrics that position mortgages and rental costs as meaningful but manageable proportions of household income, though housing values have risen modestly in recent periods.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 59%

even with state median

Grade 482%

School 82% · District 82%

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 66% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 46%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 69% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Science

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 52% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 580%

School 80% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median

This schoolCAIRO-DURHAM 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-income39%Higher-income57%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income68%Higher-income48%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income63%Higher-income76%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income40%Higher-income85%46 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income83%Higher-income79%4 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income65%Higher-income68%3 pp gap