NC Minnesota News

There were 3,130 students enrolled in Wadena County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 0.3% more than the previous year, according to reports from the Minnesota Department of Education.

In terms of gender distribution, the student body in Wadena County comprised 50.1% boys, with girls representing the remaining 49.9%.

Data also showed that white students made up 90% of the student body, the largest percentage in Wadena County schools, followed by multiracial students with 4.2%, 3.1% Hispanic students, 1.3% American Indian students, 0.7% Black students, 0.4% Asian students, 0.2% Other Indigenous Peoples students and less than 0.1% Hawaiian Pacific Islander students.

Menahga Elementary had the highest enrollment among Wadena County's 10 schools in the 2023-24 school year, welcoming 511 students.

Minnesota's educational system, the 10th largest in the United States, serves over 869,000 students across 2,709 institutions. As of 2024, the student-to-teacher ratio in the state’s public schools is 1:16, slightly worse than the national average of 1:15.

Meanwhile, data from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that Minnesota fourth and eighth graders performed mostly above the national average in math, their scores suggest a slight decline from previous years, particularly in reading.

School name	Total enrollment in 2022-23	Total enrollment in 2023-24	% change
Menahga Elementary	681	511	-25%
Wadena-Deer Creek Senior High	469	480	2.3%
Wadena-Deer Creek Elementary	449	464	3.3%
Menahga High School	283	434	53.4%
Verndale Elementary	263	262	-0.4%
Verndale Secondary	245	247	0.8%
Sebeka Secondary	258	245	-5%
Sebeka Elementary	215	237	10.2%
Wadena-Deer Creek 5th and 6th Grade	170	168	-1.2%
Freshwater Education District ALC	88	82	-6.8%