Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 81641

Zip code 81641 in Colorado is served by a single middle school, Barone Middle School, which educates students in grades 6–8 and is part of the highly regarded Meeker School District Re1, ranked 17th out of 115 districts in the state. This small school enrolls 163 students, with a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.2, giving it roughly 10 full-time instructional staff. About 30.7% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and the school consistently earns a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Academically, Barone's biggest strength is English Language Arts, where it outperforms the state at every grade level—especially in 7th grade (62.7% vs. 46.6%) and 8th grade (59.6% vs. 42.2%). Science is also a standout subject, with 8th-grade proficiency at 51.1%, more than 15 points above the state average of 35.4%, though that figure did drop from 62.9% the prior year. Math is more uneven: overall proficiency is near the state average (38.5% vs. 37.3%), but the grade-level breakdown shows a clear "7th-grade peak" at 49.0%, followed by a concerning dip in 8th grade to 31.3%, below the state's 37.8%. Chronic absenteeism stands at 19.0%, which is well below the state rate of 28.4% and the district rate of 22.5%, though it still means roughly one in five students misses significant school time. The dropout rate is 0.0%.

Quality-wise, Barone has held a 4-star rating for three straight years and ranked in the top third of Colorado middle schools, though its percentile has slipped modestly from 79th in 2023–2024 to 71st in 2025–2026. Since Barone is the only middle school in its district, its test scores exactly match district averages, confirming that district-level data is entirely driven by this one school. The school's ELA and science results, healthy class sizes, and low absenteeism relative to the state all point to a solid rural school with strong teaching in key subjects. The main area to watch is 8th-grade math, alongside the slight year-over-year declines in overall proficiency, but Barone remains a strong educational option in the area.