Dr. Lewis S. Libby School in Milford was named Maine’s top middle school in a U.S. News and World Report ranking released Tuesday.
The school was one of several in Greater Bangor to move up in this year’s rankings. Bangor area elementary schools were ranked higher this year than last, on average, while middle schools saw less movement in the rankings.
Dr. Lewis S. Libby School is the highest ranked school in Greater Bangor on either list. The school jumped from ninth to first from last year in middle school ranking. The elementary school made a significant climb from 73rd to 36th in the state.
The rankings were revealed less than a week after Milford residents approved slashing $297,000 from the school committee’s recommendation for the school’s annual budget in a contentious town vote. The $5.9 million budget approved on Oct. 23 is $200,000 short of last year’s $6.1 million.
Reeds Brook Middle School (10th), part of RSU 22 in Hampden, was the only other area middle school to be ranked in the top 10 and climbed six spots from last year.
Only one other middle school, Orono Middle School, part of RSU 26, ranked in the top 25, coming in at 19th in the state.
A majority of the other middle schools in Greater Bangor — Center Drive School in Orrington, Brewer Community School and James F. Doughty School — saw jumps in the rankings, landing them at 37, 38 and 81, respectively.
Brewer Community School was the only middle school in the area that slid down the rankings. The school came in at 38, a drop of eight from last year.
Elementary schools across Greater Bangor also saw improvements from last year’s rankings.
George B Weatherbee School in Hampden was the highest-ranked elementary school in the area, coming in at 17th, up nine positions from last year.
Orono’s elementary school, the Asa C Adams School, jumped 24 spots from 48th to 24th.
Fruit Street School, one of seven elementary schools in Bangor Public Schools, surged from 74th to 29th, earning it the top spot for the school district.
Bangor’s six other elementary schools — Mary Snow School, Fairmount School, Vine Street School, Abraham Lincoln School, Downeast School and Fourteenth Street School — ranked 38, 40, 57, 125, 138 and unranked, respectively. Fairmount School was the only school in the district to slide down the list from last year.
Conners-Emerson School (Bar Harbor), Cape Elizabeth Middle School (Cape Elizabeth), Falmouth Middle School (Falmouth) and Middle School of the Kennebunks (Kennebunk) rounded out the top five middle schools in the state.
Cave Hill School (Eastbrook), Brownfield Denmark Elementary School (Denmark), Pond Cove Elementary (Cape Elizabeth), Mapleton Elementary School (Mapleton) and Yarmouth Elementary School (Yarmouth) were ranked the top five elementary schools in the state.
The 2026 rankings are based half on student’s scores on mathematics and reading and language arts state assessments and half on the test results in the context of socioeconomic demographics, according to U.S. News and World Report.
