Best Public Schools in Zip Code 43543

Zip code 43543 has two schools — Montpelier Elementary School (grades K–10, enrollment 471) and Montpelier High School (grades 7–12, enrollment 316) — both part of the Montpelier Exempted Village district and sharing the same address on E Brown Rd, with a combined 787 students. The district profile sits below the state median at rank 417 of 773 (46th percentile, 2 stars). One quirk to know: the "Elementary" school is classified in the data as an Alternative school, so the area summary reports 0 elementary and 0 middle schools, even though it serves elementary grades. The two grade spans also overlap at grades 7–10.

Academically, the two schools look quite different. The elementary school is strongest in math: 4th grade math is 91.4% proficient versus 67.3% statewide, 5th grade math 78.1% versus 59.1%, and 3rd grade math 72.9% versus 62.1%. Its math average is 73.9% against a state 61.2%, while ELA is slightly behind state (60.9% vs 62.9%) and 5th grade science is a clear weak spot at 51.6% versus 62.7%. At the high school, American Government is the standout at 100% proficient versus 71.6% statewide, and social studies averages 86.5% versus 72.4%; English II is also above state. But high school math averages 47.0% versus 51.4% and science 58.9% versus 64.1%, with 8th grade math at 34.7% and Biology at 55.7%. The high school's rank has slipped from the 77th percentile with 4 stars in 2023–2024 to the 50th percentile with 3 stars in 2025–2026.

One of the sharpest differences is attendance: chronic absenteeism is 7.5% at the elementary school but 20.9% at the high school, compared with 13.1% district-wide — the high school rate is 2.8 times the elementary rate. The high school does have a lower student-teacher ratio (10.5 vs 15.1) and slightly higher 2018–19 per-student spending ($10,562 vs $10,358), so staffing and funding alone aren't resolving its math, science, and attendance challenges. Note that free/reduced-lunch percentages are blank for both schools, so socioeconomic context is unknown, and spending figures are from 2018–2019.