Summary
Gunnison Elementary School serves 560 students in grades PK–5 in Gunnison, Colorado, a small mountain town, and is part of the Gunnison Watershed School District Re1J. The district as a whole performs well — ranked 31st out of 115 Colorado districts — but the school itself currently sits in the 31st percentile statewide (654th out of 943 elementary schools), a sharp drop from the roughly 50th-percentile position it held in the previous two years. Since there are no other elementary schools within 20 miles, district and state averages serve as the best benchmarks for comparison.
Academically, Gunnison Elementary School trails the district and state in most subjects. In the most recent testing year, only 27.2% of students met or exceeded state standards in ELA, compared with 40.5% in the district and 44.7% statewide. Math proficiency was 30.5% versus 36.0% for the district and 37.3% for the state, and 5th-grade science proficiency dropped 13 points to 20.3%. Chronic absenteeism is also a serious concern: 31% of students were chronically absent in 2024–2025, and 35.5% the year before — both well above district and state averages. Low-income students, who make up roughly 45% of the student body, ranked in the 6th percentile statewide in recent subgroup results, and both male and female students saw steep ranking declines in the latest year.
The most striking finding is how broad the recent decline has been. ELA, math, and science proficiency all fell sharply in the same year, which suggests a schoolwide challenge rather than an isolated subject problem. Notably, math had been a relative strength in the two prior years, with proficiency above both district and state averages, but that advantage has now reversed. Within an otherwise strong district, Gunnison Elementary stands out as a clear improvement priority. On a positive note, class sizes are relatively small at around 13 students per teacher. For parents, the areas that most need attention are attendance, reading proficiency, and support for economically disadvantaged students.
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