Payson CUSD 1

The two schools in Payson CUSD 1 serve preschool through grade 12: Seymour Elementary School enrolls 233 students in PK–6, and Seymour High School enrolls 216 students in grades 7–12, for 449 students total. In 2025–2026 all-grades IAR results, both schools were below state proficiency rates in ELA and mathematics: ELA was 50% at Elementary and 53% at High, compared with 56% statewide; mathematics was 34% and 19%, compared with 40% statewide. Mathematics is the clearest shared area of concern, especially at High.

Elementary has the strongest standout result: its sixth graders reached 84% proficiency in ELA and 50% in mathematics, respectively 25 and 14 points above state results. High is the lower performer in the all-grades mathematics comparison, trailing Elementary by 15 points; its ninth-grade PreACT ELA result was also 41%, 20 points below the state, and tenth-grade science was 32%, 16 points below. Attendance favors Elementary: chronic absenteeism was 10%, versus 22% at High in 2025–2026. High’s graduation rate was 83%, 7 points below the state, while its dropout rate was 7%, 5 points above. Because the schools serve different, nonoverlapping grade spans, their all-grades results are not same-grade comparisons.

All-grades IAR scores improved at both schools from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: Elementary rose 4 points in ELA and 3 in mathematics, while High rose 19 and 11 points. High’s mathematics result remains well below the state despite that improvement. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile moved up at Elementary, from 44 to 52, but down at High, from 38 to 29. The schools have similar reported context: student–teacher ratios were 10.8 and 11.1 in 2024–2025, and free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 50% and 49% that year. These figures describe the schools but do not explain their different results.