Original Research by School Decision on Community Ste(a)m Academy - Xenia
Community STEAM Academy-Xenia is a tuition-free public school for middle and early high school students, born from one of Ohio's newest educational experiments. It opened in fall 2023 as a designated STEAM school and has no tuition barrier; any Ohio student within a certain bus-ride radius is eligible, and their home district is required to provide transportation or pay the state. For Xenia families or anyone relocating to Greene County with a sixth through tenth grader, this school represents a structural choice that did not exist before.
The school sits in the phase of a planned expansion. It currently serves grades six through ten, but it is adding one grade per year toward becoming a six-through-twelve school, with its first graduating class expected in the 2026-27 school year. The district has also announced plans to add K-5 eventually in the former East High School building downtown, which would make it Ohio's first K-12 STEAM school. For families with younger children, this trajectory matters directly: the school will not serve those grades for several more years, so it is not yet a K-12 option for a family with elementary-age kids.
The pedagogical model is where this school diverges most from conventional school. Rather than traditional classrooms, the building uses modular, adaptable walls to create open learning spaces called neighborhoods. Instruction is project-based and STEAM-focused, with ninth graders exposed to pathways in robotics, drone operation, graphic design, entrepreneurship, culinary arts, biotech, and esports. The school embeds College Credit Plus options throughout its curriculum, so different graduation pathways offer different numbers of college credits students can earn before leaving. This is deliberately different from a teacher-centered classroom model, and it is a choice parents would weigh against conventional schooling rather than simply accept.
The academic profile shows mixed results on the 2024-25 state assessments. Across all grades tested, English language arts proficiency reached about two-thirds of students, and social studies was similar. Science proficiency was roughly at midpoint. Mathematics proficiency was notably lower, reaching roughly one-quarter of students. Only one year of data is available, so trends cannot yet be shown. Because the school is so new and still in its expansion phase, it has no graduation rate data to report. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about its approach to math proficiency and whether the project-based model is paired with focused skill instruction in areas where the early data shows weaker attainment.
The student body is small, typical for a new school in year two of operations. The enrollment is distributed fairly unevenly across the grade bands served, with sixth grade the largest and tenth grade just a handful of students. The racial and ethnic composition is predominantly White, with smaller shares of Asian, Black, and Hispanic students. A small portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is notably lower than many other districts. Data on students with disabilities or English learners is not reported, so the school's capacity in those areas is not clear from the available information.
Xenia itself is Greene County's county seat, lying about fifteen miles east of Dayton. It is known as the "Bicycle Capital of the Midwest" and has built civic and recreational life around Xenia Station, a replica 1880s depot that serves as the hub for several major paved rail-trails, including the Little Miami Scenic Trail and the Ohio-to-Erie Trail. Downtown is walkable, with shops, restaurants, and the historic courthouse and city buildings anchoring civic space. The city's identity is tied partly to its recovery from a major tornado decades ago, which destroyed much of downtown and shaped later rebuilding.
The housing market in the area is moderate in price relative to Ohio and the nation. Median home values are slightly above the state benchmark and well below the national benchmark. Rental prices are also moderate. DR Horton's Grandstone Trace is the primary active new-construction subdivision for families seeking single-family homes. The city is in the middle of a major redevelopment project called the Market District, a public-private partnership replacing a mostly vacant shopping center with mixed-use downtown development, new housing, and public space. Population has been roughly flat to slightly increasing in recent years.
The school's location is on a campus setting removed from downtown, as is typical for newer schools in the Xenia district. For a family seeking a distinctive pedagogical model and a new public-school choice in Greene County, this school offers that. For families uncertain about project-based STEAM learning or needing a school aligned with more conventional instruction, the district-operated schools serving Xenia remain the alternative.
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