Summary:
ZIP code 54843 in Hayward, Wisconsin is home to two elementary schools — Hayward Primary (grades PK–2, 403 students) and Hayward Intermediate (grades 3–5, 327 students) — both part of the Hayward Community School District, serving 730 elementary students combined.
The two schools play different roles. Hayward Intermediate is the academic standout, especially in math: its average math proficiency was 66.68% in 2024–25 and 60.22% in 2025–26, in both years well above the district and roughly 13 and 7 percentage points above the state. ELA is more uneven — 5th grade ELA slipped to 50.86% in 2025–26, below both district and state — and 4th grade Social Studies fell sharply from 77.48% (13.83 points above the state) to 65.35%, essentially matching the state. Its rank dropped from 4 stars (71st percentile) to 3 stars (57th percentile), a fall of 151 places. Hayward Primary has no test scores because it serves grades PK–2, below the tested grades, so that absence is not a performance signal; it stands out instead for the lowest chronic absenteeism (14.0%), the lowest student-teacher ratio (10.5), and the highest per-pupil spending ($16,987 versus $15,447).
For families comparing the two, both schools have better attendance than the district's 18.3% and the state's 17.3%, and both serve communities where about half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch (48.14% at Primary, 50.15% at Intermediate). Hayward Intermediate posts strong math results despite the slightly higher poverty indicator, while Hayward Primary offers smaller classes and more resources per student, likely reflecting early-grade staffing. The district overall ranks 249th of 432 (42nd percentile, 2 stars). The takeaway: Intermediate is the academic engine with durable math strength but recent volatility in ELA, Social Studies, and rankings; Primary is the attendance and resource bright spot, with its academic performance simply not measured by the state exam.
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