Summary:
Zip code 81140, located in the rural San Luis Valley community of La Jara, Colorado, contains exactly one middle school: Centauri Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 211 students in the North Conejos School District No. Re1J. Because this is the only middle school in the zip code, all meaningful comparisons must be made against district and state averages rather than against other local schools.
The school's clearest academic strength is English Language Arts, where overall proficiency (43.0%) is nearly identical to the state average (44.7%). Sixth-grade ELA is a standout, with 51.4% proficiency versus 41.6% statewide, a nearly 10-point advantage. Math is the most significant weakness: only 20.8% of Centauri students were proficient in 2025-2026, down sharply from 28.5% the prior year and well below the district (33.6%) and state (37.3%) averages. Eighth-grade science is also a serious concern, falling from 51.5% proficiency in 2024-2025 to just 16.0% in 2025-2026 — a 35.5-point drop that is far below the state average of 35.4%.
Despite serving a high-poverty population (64.45% free or reduced-price lunch), Centauri posts a very low dropout rate of 0.6% compared to 1.6% statewide, and chronic absenteeism (22.6%) is better than the state rate of 28.4%. With a student–teacher ratio of 13.1 to 1, the school has small class sizes that could support targeted math and science interventions. Interestingly, the district ranks in the 72nd percentile statewide, but Centauri's own state ranking has been volatile, ranging from the 57th percentile (3 stars) in 2024-2025 down to the 43rd percentile (2 stars) in 2025-2026. The overall picture is a school with genuine strengths in literacy and student retention, but urgent work is needed to stabilize science scores and reverse the decline in math proficiency.
Thank you for your feedback!