Petrova Elementary School, Saranac Lake NY

Original Research by School Decision on Petrova Elementary School

Petrova Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Saranac Lake, a historic Adirondack village about an hour south of the Canadian border. The school sits on Petrova Avenue, part of a district campus arrangement that keeps schools separated from the village's downtown commercial core. State testing data from the most recent school year shows proficiency across math, English language arts, and science, but at subdued levels. In math, students in third grade reached about the middle of the proficiency band, while fourth-graders scored meaningfully lower, and fifth-graders landed in the lower half. English language arts proficiency hovered near the midpoint across grades three through five, while fifth-grade science proficiency was at approximately the halfway mark. The school's proficiency index positions it in the top quartile among districts in Franklin County, a position anchored partly by stronger performance in the tested grades relative to some peers in the county, though readers should note that these scores sit below what many schools in the state achieve.

The enrollment is small, with just over three hundred students across the grade band. About half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which indicates moderate economic need in the student population. The school population is predominantly white. Specific data on special education and English learner enrollment are not available.

Housing in Saranac Lake sits moderately above the state median, with properties in the area appreciating at a steady pace. Rents are climbing as demand from remote workers and seasonal residents has increased. The village is undergoing downtown revitalization centered on the reopened Hotel Saranac and the Adirondack Rail Trail, a multi-use corridor connecting local towns. Civic life is dense in the downtown, with galleries, parks, the library, and active street life, though the school itself sits apart from this center in a campus setting. Saranac Lake's economy is anchored by health care and biomedical research, with Adirondack Medical Center and the Trudeau Institute as major employers, creating a stable if not rapidly growing local job base.

The district faces substantial structural challenges. Enrollment has been declining across multiple years, driving recent budgets to the state's property tax cap and triggering staff reductions. More immediately, the board voted to close Bloomingdale Elementary School at the end of the 2025-26 school year and restructure the district's buildings. Petrova will become a pre-kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school, with middle grades moving to the high school building beginning in fall 2026. For families in Bloomingdale, this closure means a significant change in where their children will attend school. The district expects enrollment pressures to persist, shaping what programs and staffing remain available over time.

A parent considering Petrova should understand the school as serving a small, economically diverse community with working proficiency across core subjects but room for growth in test performance. The broader enrollment crisis and upcoming facility restructuring are real factors that will shape the school's resources and configuration in the near term. A parent may want to look into the district's plans for academic support and whether the shift to a pre-K-6 model in Petrova will change class structures or services.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 65% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 39% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 48% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 56% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 45% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 45% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 588%

School 88% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolSARANAC LAKE 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-income61%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income56%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income37%Higher-income55%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income71%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income60%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income66%27 pp gap