Fonda-fultonville 5-8 School, Fonda NY

Original Research by School Decision on Fonda-fultonville 5-8 School

Fonda-Fultonville 5-8 School is the intermediate and middle school for the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District, serving fifth through eighth graders in Fonda, a small village and the county seat of Montgomery County in the Mohawk Valley. The school sits on the district's consolidated campus rather than in the historic downtown, though the village itself is compact enough that residents describe most daily errands as close at hand.

The academic picture here is genuinely mixed, and the contrast between math and reading deserves attention. Math proficiency is a real strength: across all four tested grade levels, strong majorities of students score proficient or above on the New York State assessments, and performance holds reasonably steady from fifth grade through eighth. That is a meaningful result. ELA tells a different story. Fifth and sixth grade ELA proficiency sits in the solid majority range, but seventh and eighth grade ELA proficiency falls noticeably, with fewer than half of students reaching the proficient threshold in each of those grades. A parent whose child will spend years seven and eight here should ask the school directly what supports are in place for middle school reading and writing. Science results from the two tested grades split in a similar way, with fifth grade science below the midpoint and eighth grade science considerably stronger. Social studies testing data available in the records is from many years ago and is not a current guide to performance. Trend data across years was not available, so it is not possible to say from the data whether these patterns are improving or stable.

Relative to districts in Montgomery County, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile of that group, which puts its academic performance well above the county midpoint and above the highest-performing district in the county comparison set. That is a meaningful position for a school drawing from a community where a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. A data note: IEP and English learner rates were not reported, so those dimensions of the student population cannot be characterized here.

The school is predominantly white, with small Hispanic and multiracial shares and very small representation from other groups. The student body is mid-sized for its grade band. Participation rates on state assessments run high across all grades, which gives the proficiency figures solid grounding.

Families should know about two practical district changes. All students now receive free breakfast and lunch under the federal Community Eligibility Provision, a recurring household cost savings compared to prior years when meals required payment or qualification. The district also completed a mascot transition, moving from a Native American identity to the Valley Hawks following a state mandate, with the new branding fully in place for the current school year.

On the facilities and tax side, voters approved a capital infrastructure project and a capital reserve fund in recent years, with the reserve structured to smooth future building costs rather than create sharp levy spikes. Budgets have passed each year with wide margins and tax levy increases held at or below the state cap consistently. Housing in the Fonda ZIP sits well below both the state and national median, and the price-to-income ratio is notably modest compared to the national figure, which places this among the more affordable entry points in the region.

The athletics data shows track and field as the one program documented at the school level; a fuller picture of extracurricular offerings would require checking with the school or the district website directly. The village itself is car-dependent despite its compact feel, with negligible transit options, so families without vehicles should factor that in. Fonda launched a formal revitalization initiative in 2025 aimed at Main Street, waterfront access, and housing stock, though as of the time of this writing that effort is in its early stages.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

1 course reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Math	9	100.0%

Math

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 675%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 30 pts above state median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 71% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 34 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 64% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48%

even with state median

Science

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 868%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 35 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 591%

School 91% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 889%

School 89% · district not reported

▲ 10 pts above state median

This schoolFONDA-FULTONVILLE 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 5Lower-income45%Higher-income78%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income70%33 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income55%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income49%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income80%42 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income55%Higher-income87%32 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income81%33 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income64%Higher-income77%13 pp gap