City: Branson, MO

Category: Education

Telephone: (417) 334-6541

Address: 400 Cedar Ridge Dr.

Description: The Branson School District, home of the Buccaneers, is the largest school district in the area, with 111.47 square miles and an enrollment of 4,066. The district has an assessed valuation of $623,931,523. Current facilities include three campuses. Three buildings, housing grades pre-k through four, are situated on the Cedar Ridge campus. Grades 2 through 4 recently expanded to the former intermediate building, while grades 5 and 6 are enjoying the new facilities on Buchanan Road, just west of the high school. Grades seven and eight are located in the former high school building on US 65 North at the Bee Creek Road junction. The high school, grades 9 through 12, moved in the spring of 2002 into a new facility located on Buchanan Road, just off US 65 north of Branson. The district office for special services, the social worker, classrooms for the alternative high school, and classrooms for early childhood special education are housed in the former Kindergarten Center Building in downtown Branson on Sixth Street.Most of the buildings of the school system are new, but even the older ones are well maintained and clean. The high school makes an attractive impression with the large, colorful, and appropriate-themed wall murals done by art department teachers and students. The Branson School District has 313 certified instructors as well as numerous counselors, speech therapists, librarians, and a testing coordinator. The school is accredited by the Missouri State Department of Education under the Missouri School Improvement Program Standards, the highest accreditation awarded by the department. The primary elementary was named one of eight Blue Ribbon elementary schools in the state. Exact percentages vary from year to year, but 60 to 70 percent of the high school’s graduates seek post–high school education, and students on all levels score consistently above the norms on standardized achievement tests.Contacts for the individual schools are: