Summary:
Zip code 49096 is home to just one elementary school, Maplewood School, which serves grades 3 through 6 in the rural community of Vermontville, MI, and enrolls 267 students as part of the Maple Valley Schools district.
For parents considering this area, Maplewood School currently holds a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom third of Michigan elementary schools (1065 out of 1492). Academically, the school trails state averages across nearly every subject and grade level, with gaps ranging from about 6 to 23 percentage points. The most significant challenges are in English Language Arts, where proficiency dropped in all grades from the prior year—most notably in 5th grade, falling from 30.9% to 20.3%. Math performance is also consistently below state averages, though results vary widely by student cohort; for example, 5th grade math improved by 8.6 points while 6th grade math dropped by 11.4 points. On a more positive note, 5th grade science (32.8% proficient) and social studies (21.9%) showed strong year-over-year gains, with science now sitting just 7.2 points behind the state average—the school's smallest gap in any subject.
Beyond test scores, there are encouraging signs. Chronic absenteeism at Maplewood School is just 14.4%, dramatically better than both the district (24.2%) and state (27.9%) averages, even though 61% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school also spends a healthy $13,950 per student with a 16.7:1 student-teacher ratio. However, given that this single school defines the entire Maple Valley Schools district's performance, the volatile year-over-year swings in test scores suggest that individual student cohorts heavily influence results. While upper grades (5th-6th) tend to perform closer to state averages than 3rd-4th grades, the overall picture is one of a school facing significant academic hurdles, but with clear bright spots in attendance and recent science gains that could serve as foundations for improvement.
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