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Fort Fairfield, Maine - 2 schools
An equity score of 70/100 ranks Rsu 86/Msad 20 #26 of 131 districts in Maine (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,844 per pupil, Rsu 86/Msad 20 ranks #125 of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending (Maine districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
482
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$16,844
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Rsu 86/Msad 20 operates 2 public schools serving 482 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Maine. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Aroostook County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,844 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 203 Maine districts by per-pupil spending. See how Maine compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.8% local, 57.7% state, and 15.5% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 70/100, ranked #26 of 131 in Maine against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 238:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 48.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.0% White, 1.1% Hispanic or Latino, 0.3% African American across the district's schools.
Fort Fairfield Middle/High School accounts for 49.4% of all Rsu 86/Msad 20 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Rsu 86/Msad 20 a distant remainder — means Rsu 86/Msad 20-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Rsu 86/Msad 20 student-counselor ratio is 238:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Rsu 86/Msad 20 chronic absenteeism rate is 48.0% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.