Summary:
ZIP code 87326 covers the rural Vanderwagen area of McKinley County, New Mexico, and contains just two elementary schools — David Skeet Elementary, a PK–5 school with 232 students in the Gallup-McKinley City Schools district, and Chi Chil'tah Community School, a K–8 school with 54 students that operates as its own district. Both serve predominantly low-income families, with free/reduced-lunch rates of 84.48% and 94.44% respectively, but they are very different in size, governance, and available information.
David Skeet is the only school here with published performance data, and its recent trajectory is strong: it climbed from the 9th percentile statewide in 2023-24 to the 40th percentile in 2025-26, moving from 0 stars to 2 stars. Math proficiency rose more than 12 points in a single year (well above the state's own gain), and the school now performs above the average school in its district. Grade-level results show 4th-grade English language arts at 54.17, above both district and state, and 6th-grade math at 37.14, also above both. Science is the weak spot, reported at under 20% at the all-grades and 5th-grade levels, and 5th grade is the lowest-performing cohort. Two cautions for parents: several grades have suppressed results (a sign of very small classes, where a few students can swing a percentage), and the listing of 6th-grade results at a PK–5 school suggests either a broader grade span or a data attribution issue.
Chi Chil'tah cannot be compared academically, because this data set includes no test scores, rankings, or district comparisons for it — only enrollment, poverty, and staffing figures. Its 10.8:1 student-to-teacher ratio is fairly typical, while David Skeet's reported 4.6:1 is unusually low and likely reflects a broad staffing formula rather than actual class size. In short, one school shows clear, measurable momentum, and the other has no published performance record.
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