The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Social studies. The lowest is 48% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Brook Intermediate School
Brook Intermediate School serves grades three through five in Byesville, a small village in southeastern Ohio along Wills Creek. The school is part of Rolling Hills Local School District and sits within a residential, walkable community with coal-mining heritage and small-town character.
The school's current enrollment is small, distributed roughly evenly across the three grades. The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data was not available, nor were counts for special education or English learner populations.
On Ohio's State Tests, Brook's performance shows mixed results across subjects. In math, a bit over half the students scored at proficient levels or above. Science scores were slightly higher, with a majority of students meeting proficiency. In English language arts, proficiency fell below half. Performance on social studies tested at fourth grade was notably stronger, though that data comes from 2017 and is not recent. Overall proficiency across tested subjects places the school at the top quartile among the four districts in Guernsey County.
The school's academic profile is one of the strengths relative to its county peers. Science instruction appears solid, and the school demonstrates consistent full participation in state testing. At the same time, ELA proficiency below fifty percent is a soft spot. Parents may want to discuss with the school what reading and writing support looks like in the classroom and whether intervention or small-group work targets students who struggle with literacy.
Byesville itself is a quiet, compact village with a modest population and a practical walkable core anchored by a local library branch, small downtown with shops like Moore Bros Hardware, and the Byesville Historical Society museum. Civic assets include highway access to I-77 and I-70 a short drive north, proximity to Cambridge Municipal Airport, and parks residents cite as neighborhood strengths. The village's economy has relied on local government and services; a manufacturing plant closed in 2024, narrowing the industrial base, though development tracts near the interstate exits are being marketed for future growth. Median home values in the area are below the state benchmark, and new residential subdivisions are platting near the schools, suggesting modest growth on the village edges.
The most significant change on the horizon is the Rolling Hills Local School District's consolidation of five aging school buildings into a single PK-12 campus at the Meadowbrook High School site, a project being completed in phases through 2026. This is a once-in-a-generation restructuring. Currently, Brook Intermediate is a standalone building. Once the consolidation finishes, students in grades three through five will attend the new unified campus alongside younger students in pre-K through grade two and older students in grades six through twelve. The new facility includes renovated classrooms, a "Colt College" post-secondary wing for dual-credit and career pathways, and new elementary and middle additions. Critically, the project is being funded by Ohio's Facilities Construction Commission and a donation from Apex Power Group (developers of the Guernsey Power Station), with no local tax increase required of residents, an important consideration for families weighing property-tax exposure in a rural district.
For families in or considering Byesville, Brook Intermediate represents a small, community-rooted school within a district undergoing major transformation. Strength in science and strong relative proficiency overall are positives. The lower ELA numbers warrant a deeper conversation with the school about reading intervention and support. The pending consolidation means that within months, students will move to a modern, unified campus with expanded program offerings and post-secondary pathways—a significant operational change that families should expect and plan for.
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