WC Minnesota News

There were 7,647 students enrolled in Otter Tail County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 0.2% more than the previous year, according to reports from the Minnesota Department of Education.

In terms of gender distribution, the student body in Otter Tail County comprised 51.4% boys, with girls representing the remaining 48.6%.

Data also showed that white students made up 83.4% of the student body, the largest percentage in Otter Tail County schools, followed by Hispanic students with 8.5%, 2.9% multiracial students, 2.4% American Indian students, 2% Black students, 0.6% Asian students, 0.2% Other Indigenous Peoples students and less than 0.1% Hawaiian Pacific Islander students.

Kennedy Middle School had the highest enrollment among Otter Tail County's 22 schools in the 2023-24 school year, welcoming 756 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
Kennedy Middle School	769	756	-1.7%
Kennedy High School	685	691	0.9%
Heart of The Lake Elementary	575	596	3.7%
Prairie Wind Middle	515	529	2.7%
Perham Senior High	505	514	1.8%
New York Mills Elementary	443	467	5.4%
Viking Elementary School	460	460	0%
Pelican Rapids Secondary	405	400	-1.2%
Cleveland Elementary	369	352	-4.6%
New York Mills Secondary	340	335	-1.5%
Adams Elementary	281	293	4.3%
Underwood Secondary	279	287	2.9%
Underwood Elementary	289	284	-1.7%
Parkers Prairie Secondary	285	278	-2.5%
Parkers Prairie Elementary	256	257	0.4%
McKinley Elementary	242	225	-7%
Henning Elementary	224	218	-2.7%
Battle Lake Elementary	224	215	-4%
Battle Lake Secondary	189	188	-0.5%
Henning Secondary	158	165	4.4%
Fergus Falls Area Learning Center	102	89	-12.7%
Perham Area Learning Center	37	48	29.7%