Leo William Butler Elementary School

Leo William Butler Elementary School is a K-5 school in Fort Lupton, Colorado, serving 355 students in Weld RE-8 Schools. The school serves a high-poverty population, with 66.5% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and currently ranks at the 31st percentile statewide — 655th of 950 schools — earning 2 stars in both 2024-25 and 2023-24. That places it in the lower third of Colorado elementary schools, but the details are more encouraging than that headline suggests.

The school's most striking strength is attendance. Only 19.7% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, compared to 33.1% districtwide and 28.4% statewide — the lowest rate among all nearby schools with reported data. By comparison, Twombly Elementary School had 23.8%, while Southeast Elementary School, Northeast Elementary School, and South Elementary School each ranged from 34.7% to 39.1%. Academically, Leo exceeds its district average in both reading and math every year. In 2024-25, 32% scored proficient in English Language Arts versus 25.1% districtwide, and 24.2% were proficient in math versus 22.5%. Hispanic students stand out as a strong subgroup, ranking in the 61st percentile statewide. The school also has a low student-teacher ratio of 14.1, the smallest among nearby schools.

The main challenges are a substantial gender gap — female students rank in the 44th percentile while males sit at the 11th — and a historically weak science program that jumped from 11.5% to 22.4% proficiency in the most recent year. Despite these issues, Leo has climbed from the 9th percentile in 2018-19 to its current 31st percentile. It consistently outperforms its closest same-district neighbor, Twombly Elementary School, in math, science, and attendance while serving a nearly identical student population — and it even ranked above Thunder Valley Pk-8 in St. Vrain Valley School District. Within a broader region of generally low-performing schools, Leo sits comfortably in the middle: clearly above Southeast, Northeast, and South Elementary in School District 27J, though below lower-poverty schools like Foundations Academy and Elaine S. Padilla Elementary School.