Original Research by School Decision on Riverside El Sch West
Riverside Elementary School West is a small public school in Taylor, Pennsylvania, serving kindergarten through second grade. It is part of the Riverside School District, which spans two boroughs in Lackawanna County: Taylor and Moosic.
The school has an enrollment of about three hundred and fifty students distributed across its three grade levels. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial students as well. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic hardship in the school population.
State testing data in math, English language arts, and science were not available for analysis. The school serves only early grades, which are not subject to state assessments in Pennsylvania, so this gap reflects the grade band rather than performance weakness. Without state proficiency measures, there is no basis to draw conclusions about academic achievement at this school.
The Riverside School District, which operates this school, has made two parent-relevant moves in recent years. The board adopted the 2024-2025 budget with no property-tax increase, marking the fourth consecutive year without a raise, and the district maintains one of the lowest tax rates in Lackawanna County. For families considering a move to the area, this signals multi-year property-tax stability. Additionally, the district received federal funding to add three licensed professional counselors across its schools, a material expansion of mental-health staffing that affects the day-to-day support available to students.
Taylor itself is a small borough just southwest of Scranton with a mixed industrial and residential character, built partly over former mine lands. The local economy centers on warehousing and distribution operations, including a Sanofi Pasteur pharmaceutical distribution center and a new logistics warehouse completed in 2023. Parks include David Noakes Park and John Derenick Park, with baseball, softball, and basketball facilities. The Taylor Community Library serves the borough, and public transit via COLTS Route 31 connects Taylor to downtown Scranton. Housing values in the 18517 zip code are modest compared to state and national benchmarks.
The school sits in a low-income community where the vast majority of families qualify for federal meal assistance. Without testing data or trend information available, a parent would want to request from the school directly how it assesses early-literacy and math foundations, what interventions are in place for students working below grade level, and how the two new counselors are deployed to support the student population.
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