The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Rick Marcotte Central School
Rick Marcotte Central School sits on Market Street in South Burlington, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as one of three public elementary schools in the South Burlington School District. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, with a fairly even distribution across the grade levels and a prekindergarten classroom that gives families an early entry point. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is mostly white, with smaller but visible Asian, Black, multirace, and Hispanic populations. Data on individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those figures are absent here rather than implying anything about the school's services.
On state assessments, the school's English language arts results are a clear relative strength. Proficiency rates climb steadily from third grade through fifth grade, with a majority of tested students meeting the state standard in each grade and the highest share in fifth grade. Math results are more mixed: third and fourth grade land below half of tested students proficient, while fifth grade rises to a majority. Science, tested only in fifth grade, sits just shy of half. The pattern suggests that reading and writing are where the school builds most consistently, while math is an area where some families may want to look further into how the school supports students who are not yet meeting the bar. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether these results are improving, holding, or slipping. Participation rates were also not reported.
Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate and no high school course access to describe. The neighbor comparison set, drawn from the districts in Chittenden County, could not produce a proficiency index or absenteeism comparison for this school, so those positionings are not available here. What the county set does tell a reader is that South Burlington sits among the larger, more resourced districts in the region.
South Burlington itself is a city in transition. For years it was car-oriented, built around Interstate 89 interchanges and commercial strips along Shelburne Road and Dorset Street. The City Center Initiative is changing that. Market Street is completed, with trees, shared-use paths, mixed-use buildings, and a growing cluster of restaurants and small businesses. Garden Street is being extended, and a bike-pedestrian bridge over the highway is planned. The new public library and city hall are on Market Street. Schools, though, remain on separate campuses rather than woven into the downtown core. Rick Marcotte Central School, Chamberlin School, and Orchard School each sit on their own sites, as do the middle and high schools. For a family at Rick Marcotte, that means the school has its own campus identity but is close to a civic center that is becoming more walkable and lively.
The local economy runs on services, healthcare, and professional firms. Ben and Jerry's has its headquarters here, University Mall is the largest in Vermont, and GE Healthcare and the Vermont National Guard are among the major employers. The University of Vermont and UVM Medical Center sit just across the Burlington line, and both institutions have invested in housing in South Burlington's City Center. Parks are plentiful, from Red Rocks on Lake Champlain to Farrell Park with its dog park and trails.
Housing here is more expensive than the state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well above the Vermont median. Rents are also high, though both home values and rents have eased slightly year over year. The price-to-income ratio is elevated, meaning families buying in will need solid incomes relative to the purchase price. Rent takes a meaningful but not extreme share of income. This is a market where housing costs are real, and the school district sits in a community actively trying to add housing through its downtown redevelopment.
We looked for recent parent-relevant changes at the district level and found little of lasting impact, so that is left out rather than guessed. Program offerings, discipline data, staffing figures, and attendance rates were not available for this school. What is clear from the assembled evidence is a solid elementary school in a city investing heavily in its own walkable future, with strong reading outcomes, uneven math results, and a peer environment that reflects a midsize Vermont community growing more diverse.
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