Original Research by School Decision on Felipe Colon Diaz
Felipe Colon Diaz sits in Juana Díaz, a municipality on Puerto Rico's southern coast within the Ponce Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town has a mix of residential, agricultural, and light industrial character. Sugarcane once dominated the local economy but has disappeared entirely; current agriculture includes plantains, bananas, mangoes, and livestock, and the area is also known for beige marble production. The urban core follows the classic Puerto Rican municipal plan, with a central plaza, the Iglesia San Ramón Nonato, and municipal buildings clustered together, while the surrounding barrios are more rural and car-dependent. The Luis A. Ferré Expressway connects Juana Díaz to Ponce and onward to San Juan. The municipality has been experiencing a modest population decline, and Hurricane Maria caused severe damage to homes here. No major new housing developments are publicly reported.
The school serves grades 6 through 10 under the Puerto Rico Department of Education. Its enrollment is small, and the student body is overwhelmingly concentrated in the middle grades. Only a handful of students appear in grades 9 and 10, which means the school functions, for all practical purposes, as a middle school with a negligible upper-grade presence. A parent considering this school for a high schooler would want to ask how those grades operate and whether students in them receive a full secondary program or are served through another arrangement.
The student population is entirely Hispanic, which is consistent with the surrounding community. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the economic conditions in the area. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those population details remain unknown.
State assessment results were not available for this school. No summary by subject, no metrics, and no multi-year trend data appear in the provided records. This means there is no testing picture to characterize here, and a parent would need to contact the school directly to understand how students are performing academically. Given that the school serves primarily untested or middle-grade populations under Puerto Rico's assessment framework, the absence may partly reflect what grades are captured, but the data does not confirm a specific reason, so it should not be read as a signal of weak performance.
No graduation rate is reported. This is expected for a school whose enrollment is almost entirely in middle grades, since graduation rate is a measure that applies to high school cohorts. No civil rights data, discipline information, course access details, staffing figures, or attendance records were available either. Program offerings were not provided, so there is no way to describe AP, career pathways, dual credit, or extracurricular activities from the data on hand.
The district brief for the Puerto Rico Department of Education returned limited parent-relevant information. We looked for recent changes or initiatives and found little that is specific, so rather than guess, we left it out.
What the data does show is a small, economically disadvantaged middle-grade school in a rural-to-small-town Puerto Rican municipality that has lost population and weathered serious storm damage. The community has cultural depth, with the Three Kings Festival, patron saint festivities, and the Good Friday procession drawing visitors from across the region. Natural features like Lake Toa Vaca, Salto de Collores, and dozens of beaches give the area character. But the school-level picture is thin. A parent here is working with very little public data and would be well served by visiting the school, asking about academic results, and understanding how the minimal high school presence works before making decisions.
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