Summary:
The city of Suttons Bay, Michigan, is served by the Suttons Bay Public Schools district, which operates two small public schools—Suttons Bay Elementary Middle School (grades PK-8) and Suttons Bay Senior High School (grades 9-12)—with a combined enrollment of just 339 students.
For parents, the most striking difference between the two schools is in outcomes. Suttons Bay Senior High School is the clear leader in persistence and graduation, boasting a 94.2% graduation rate and a 2.8% dropout rate—both dramatically better than the district and state averages. However, this success does not extend to college readiness: 11th-grade SAT reading and writing scores are just 31% proficient, a staggering 21 points below the state average. In contrast, Suttons Bay Elementary Middle School shows a more inconsistent picture, with strong 8th-grade social studies (60% proficient) and PSAT ELA scores (70%), but significant struggles in early-grade math and reading, such as 4th-grade math at just 22.5% proficiency. The elementary school also spends more per student ($18,719) and has a slightly lower student-teacher ratio (14.1:1) than the high school, yet its state ranking (39th percentile) is below the high school's (45th percentile).
The most pressing issue district-wide is chronic absenteeism, which affects 54.4% of elementary/middle students and 37.4% of high school students—both more than double the state average. This likely explains much of the academic volatility and underperformance. Interestingly, the high school's high spending ($28,060 per student) and small classes (13.8:1) have not translated into strong SAT results, suggesting a possible curriculum misalignment with college-readiness standards. For parents, the takeaway is that while the high school excels at graduating students, both schools need to focus on improving attendance and, at the high school level, better preparing students for the academic demands of college.
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