Summary:
Elementary Schools in Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian, MN serve students in grades PK–6 through a single school, BOLD-Bird Island Elementary, located at 701 S. 9th St in Olivia. With 260 students enrolled and a student-teacher ratio of 10.9, the school is the only elementary in the Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian district's elementary data set, so all findings describe this one school rather than a comparison among schools. About 49.62% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch in 2024–2025, meaning roughly half the student body is economically disadvantaged.
Academically, the school's brightest results come in math and science. In 2025–2026, 4th grade math reached 65.5% proficient, a full 10.3 percentage points above the statewide 55.2%. All-grades math was 45.7% (state 44.9%, district 33.3%), and all-grades science was 29.4% (state 25.5%, district 23.6%). The school is above the district in all three all-grades subjects, and the only reported science grade, 5th, was 29.4% versus 25.9% statewide. This gives families reason for optimism, especially in 4th grade math.
Two concerns stand out. First, performance dropped sharply year over year: math all grades fell from 70.93% in 2024–2025 to 45.7% in 2025–2026, a 25.23-point decline, and the school's rank slipped from 321 of 872 (63rd percentile, 3 stars) to 544 of 869 (37th percentile, 2 stars). The district ranks 311 of 458, 32nd percentile, 2 stars. Second, reading is consistently below the state at every reported grade level, from 29.1% in 4th grade (state 48.8%, a 19.7-point gap) to 46.9% in 6th grade (state 53.4%). All-grades reading was 37.2% against the state's 48.6%.
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