Free Horizon Montessori

Free Horizon Montessori, an average-sized primary school in GOLDEN, Colorado, overseen by Jefferson County School District No. R-1, serves 382 students, covering grades pre-K through 8.

Jefferson County School District No. R-1 comprises 148 schools with combined enrollment of 74,935 students; Free Horizon Montessori is among them.

In terms of who attends, Free Horizon Montessori records that White students make up the majority at 75%. Other groups include 17% Hispanic, 7% multiracial.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.4:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 16.6:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 24% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Jefferson County (around 32%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Free Horizon Montessori is in the bottom 10% of Colorado public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 52.1%; Free Horizon Montessori posts 38.5%, -13.6 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Jefferson County indicate the typical household earns roughly $110,656 per year, 52% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Jefferson County runs 168 public schools (combined enrollment of about 74,739 students), of which Free Horizon Montessori is one.

Bell Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.9 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 4 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Free Horizon Montessori ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, below the local average of 53.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Free Horizon Montessori has ticked down 9%, going from 421 students in 2018 to 382 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 83% to 75% over that span.

On the community side, members of the Free Horizon Montessori community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.