Riccardi Elementary School, Glasco NY

Original Research by School Decision on Riccardi Elementary School

Riccardi Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Glasco, a small residential hamlet on the Hudson River west bank in the Town of Saugerties. The school is one of three remaining elementary buildings in the district after Mount Marion Elementary closed in 2022, consolidating students into the remaining schools and requiring new attendance boundaries.

The school's recent academic results show uneven proficiency across tested grades and subjects. In math, third grade reaches close to solid proficiency, fourth grade performs above that baseline, but fifth and sixth grades show steeper declines, with sixth grade math proficiency falling to less than half. English language arts follows a similar downward slope from third to sixth grade, starting at just under half proficiency in third grade and dropping further through the upper elementary grades. Fifth grade science sits at moderate proficiency. These patterns suggest that students face growing difficulty as they progress, particularly in grades five and six, and a parent may want to look into what specific supports or teaching approaches the school uses in those grades and what transitions students make after leaving Riccardi.

The school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the county's districts in Ulster County, a meaningful position that reflects its mixed grade-level picture. Test participation rates are generally solid in grades three and four but decline noticeably in grades five and six, particularly in English language arts, which could be part of a pattern worth discussing with the school.

Riccardi enrolls a small to moderate number of students across its grade band, with relatively even distributions except for slightly larger fifth and sixth grade cohorts. About a third of the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic, multiracial, and smaller populations of Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Native American students represented. State testing data on English learners and students with disabilities was not available.

Glasco itself is a car-dependent hamlet without a walkable downtown; most residents drive north to the Village of Saugerties for shopping and dining. The hamlet retains quiet residential streets lined with modest split-level and ranch homes, alongside newer development including subsidized housing built in 2023 and higher-end subdivisions on the edges. Housing costs have been rising, with median sale prices in the town of Saugerties climbing year over year. The area draws some New York City buyers seeking weekend homes. Glasco's industrial past—brickmaking, ice harvesting, bluestone quarrying—has faded; today the economy rests on small-scale services, strip retail, and residential use. The nearest significant employer concentration is in Kingston, about eleven miles south.

The broader district has faced contraction and financial pressure. Beyond the 2022 consolidation, the 2024-25 budget cycle saw an initial failure when voters rejected a proposal that would have exceeded the state tax cap, forcing adoption of a revised budget at the cap. The district also lost more than a million dollars in federal pandemic-relief funds that had supported mental health, literacy, and academic enrichment positions, a reduction that affects what services and enrichment the school can deliver. Earlier, voters did approve capital improvement bonds without raising taxes by timing them to the payoff of previous bonds, so facility upgrades have occurred despite budget strain.

For a family considering Riccardi, the portrait is one of a school holding its own academically in the elementary grades but showing real weakening in the upper grades, situated in a stable but modest residential hamlet undergoing gradual growth, within a district that is managing contraction and budget constraints while maintaining school facilities. Visiting the school, understanding its approach to the noted grade-level patterns, and exploring what the transition to Saugerties Middle School entails would be prudent.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 66% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 478%

School 78% · District 61% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 46% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 49% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 54% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 46% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 647%

School 47% · District 52% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 51% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 597%

School 97% · district not reported

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

This schoolSAUGERTIES 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-income57%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income52%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income17%Higher-income50%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income53%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income61%Higher-income74%13 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income57%Higher-income86%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income64%52 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income45%12 pp gap