Centauri Middle School

Centauri Middle School in La Jara, CO, serves 211 students in grades 6–8 in the rural San Luis Valley and is part of the North Conejos School District No. Re1J. The district ranks in the 72nd percentile statewide with a 4-star rating, while the school itself has landed in the 43rd to 57th percentile among Colorado middle schools in recent years. About 64% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school maintains a student-teacher ratio of roughly 13 or 14 to 1.

Centauri's clearest academic strength is English Language Arts, with all-grades proficiency of 43% nearly matching the state's 44.7%, and 6th-grade ELA reaching 51.4% versus 41.6% statewide. Math is the biggest challenge, with only 20.8% of students proficient compared to 37.3% across Colorado. Science scores have been notably volatile, swinging from 51.5% proficient in 2024–2025 to 16% in 2025–2026, likely reflecting small cohorts. In head-to-head comparisons, Centauri outpaces Ortega Middle School in Alamosa by wide margins — 51.4% versus 25.7% in 6th-grade ELA and 21.4% versus 9.6% in 6th-grade math. Nearby Antonito Middle School, which has just 24 students and higher poverty, also trails Centauri in science and other measures.

Centauri showed strong effectiveness with Hispanic and low-income students in 2024–2025, when those subgroups ranked in the 84th and 81st percentiles respectively among Colorado middle schools, though both slipped the following year. Attendance is a bright spot: chronic absenteeism fell from 33.3% to 22.6% — below the state average of 28.4% — and the dropout rate of 0.6% is less than half the statewide figure. Overall, Centauri is a solid mid-tier school that outperforms its neighbors, holds its own in reading, and would benefit most from sustained math intervention.