The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Science. The lowest is 52% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Monroe El Sch
Monroe Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Boiling Springs, a small residential village in South Middleton Township built around Children's Lake in Cumberland County. The school sits outside the historic village core on Boiling Springs Road and serves an enrollment of about a few hundred students, the majority of them white, with a modest share qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.
In the most recent state testing available, the school's performance in math and English language arts lands above the midpoint of performance among Cumberland County districts. About half of tested students in grades three through five scored proficient or above in math, and slightly more than half met proficiency in English language arts. Science testing from the prior year showed notably stronger results, with students well above the midpoint for the county. These results suggest uneven terrain: the school's students perform better in science than in foundational reading and math, a pattern a parent may want to discuss directly with the school, especially if your child needs extra support in early literacy or numeracy.
Boiling Springs itself is changing shape. South Middleton Township, which contains the village, is one of the fastest-growing parts of Cumberland County, with new housing subdivisions and mixed-use developments approved and under way. The village green and Children's Lake remain the cultural heart, walkable on foot and home to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy office, but daily life outside that core requires a car. The surrounding township has no public transit and is not laid out for walking or biking except for recreation. Housing values in the 17007 zip code are above the state median and have been rising steadily, so families considering a move should expect a more expensive market than many parts of Pennsylvania.
The Cumberland Valley School District, which operates Monroe, is the fastest-growing in the state and is currently projecting sizable enrollment gains year after year for the next decade. The district has launched major expansion projects at other elementary and middle schools to manage that growth and is planning further construction. Families with young children at Monroe should anticipate that the school may eventually serve more students, with possible redistricting or capacity shifts as the district builds out its facilities. The district has also raised property taxes annually, including to the maximum allowable under Pennsylvania law for multiple consecutive years, and is currently running deficits funded by drawing down reserves, signaling continued upward pressure on school taxes for the foreseeable future.
In terms of academic breadth, the district recently approved new high school electives and a new math curriculum for middle grades, widening the pathway for students as they progress through the system. State testing data for kindergarten through second grade is not available because Pennsylvania does not assess those grades, so families of younger elementary students will not have a public proficiency snapshot for those years.
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