Summary:
Merrill, Oregon is a small rural community served by two public schools in the Klamath County School District: Merrill Elementary School, which serves grades K–6 with 184 students, and Lost River High School, which serves grades 7–12 with 242 students. Together they enroll 426 students, and there is no separate middle or alternative school in this area. Both serve very high poverty populations, with free and reduced lunch rates near 91%, and both receive more than $20,000 per pupil in spending, with student-teacher ratios around 16 to 17 students per teacher.
On achievement, Merrill Elementary School shows the clearest momentum. Its state ranking climbed from the 36th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 67th percentile in 2025–2026, rising from 2 stars to 3 stars, and its all-grades ELA (54.5%) and math (42.2%) both beat district and state averages. Lost River High School is more uneven. Its 2024–2025 graduation rate of 97.4% is far above the district's 86.7% and the state's 83.0%, and 11th grade ELA is 85.7%, but all-grades math (26.9%) and science (23.5%) fall below state. Merrill Elementary's 6th grade math (54.5%) is a standout.
Attendance is a strength at both: chronic absenteeism is 12.6% at Merrill Elementary and 19.2% at Lost River High, far below the district's 31.0% and the state's 33.5%. Science is the shared weakness — both schools trail the state's 30.6%. Both rank in the 67th–68th percentile with 3 stars, above their district's 45th percentile and 2 stars. For parents, these are high-poverty schools that outperform their district on attendance, elementary reading and math, and high school completion, with science and high school math as the areas to watch.
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