The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on High Marq Environmental Charter School
High Marq Environmental Charter School serves grades six through twelve in Montello, a small rural city that is the county seat of Marquette County. It is a charter school within the Montello School District, and its name signals an emphasis on environmental themes, though the available data does not describe specific curricular programs. The school is very small; enrollment is in the low dozens. That size means the student body is intimate, and nearly every student is known by name. The peer group is overwhelmingly white, and roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that tracks closely with the district’s overall economic profile.
Testing data is limited because the small student counts trigger state suppression rules. For the 2024–25 school year, only seventh-grade results are reportable. In math, about half of seventh graders scored proficient or above, while in English language arts the share was notably higher, above four-fifths. No test results are available for eighth grade in any subject, nor for science or social studies, because the numbers of students tested were too small to report publicly. This pattern is common in very small schools and does not by itself signal a problem, but it does mean a parent cannot get a full picture of academic achievement from state assessments alone. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages the results it was able to report, places it above the midpoint relative to districts in Marquette County. However, the comparison universe includes only two districts, so that position carries less weight than it would in a more populous county.
No graduation rate is available in the data, even though the school includes twelfth grade. A parent considering this school for the upper grades would want to discuss graduation outcomes and postsecondary planning directly with the school. Similarly, chronic absenteeism rates are absent from the record. The school does not report special education or English learner counts in the provided data, so those support structures are not documented here.
Montello itself is a quiet, slowly shrinking community. The population has declined modestly in recent decades. The town sits on the Fox River near several lakes, with parks and outdoor recreation as notable assets. The local economy rests partly on county government employment and small businesses; the historic granite quarry is now a park. Housing is more affordable than state and national averages, and the area does not appear to be experiencing new development. The school is located on Forest Lane, a street address that the district also uses for its consolidated elementary school, Forest Lane Community School, formed in 2020 when the district merged two prior elementary buildings.
The Montello School District has undergone several recent financial and facility decisions that may matter to families. Voters approved an operational referendum in 2020, allowing the district to exceed state revenue limits for five years, and renewed that authority in 2024 through 2029, meaning a sustained property tax commitment is in place to fund day-to-day operations and staffing. In contrast, voters rejected three separate capital bond questions in 2022 that would have paid for safety upgrades, HVAC work, a new gymnasium, agriculture and technology education improvements, and ADA compliance. Those facility needs remain unaddressed for now.
For a family, High Marq offers a niche setting: a very small school with an environmental identity, inside a district where voters have chosen to support operations through taxes but have turned down facility bonds. The academic picture is thin beyond one grade’s results, which show a split between modest math performance and stronger reading performance. Parents curious about the high school experience, graduation, and college or career pathways will need to go beyond the public data to get the full story.
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