Climax-Shelly Public Schools

Climax-Shelly Public Schools is a small rural Minnesota district with only two schools — Climax Elementary serving grades PK–5 with 65 students, and Climax Secondary serving grades 6–12 with 94 students — together enrolling 159 students and ranked 419 out of 458 districts in the state, at the 9th percentile with 0 stars.

The two schools have different relative strengths, but both trail state averages in every reported subject. Climax Secondary is the stronger reading school: 26.8% of all grades were proficient in reading in 2025–2026, compared with 17.1% at Climax Elementary and 22.4% district-wide, though the state sits at 48.6%. The elementary school is the stronger math school: 20% proficient versus 7.7% at the secondary school and 13.5% district-wide, against the state's 44.9%. Science is low everywhere — 8.7% at the secondary school, 9.1% at the elementary, 8.8% district-wide, versus 25.5% statewide. The brightest spots are 3rd grade math at the elementary (36.4%) and 10th grade reading at the secondary school (27.3%). The starkest lows are 8th grade science at the secondary school (0%) and 5th grade math at the elementary (0%), both real reported zeros.

Other measures add context. Climax Elementary reports 73.85% free/reduced lunch and a student-teacher ratio of 8.8, while Climax Secondary reports 58.51% and 13. The secondary school's graduation rate is 78.5% versus the state's 84.9%, and its dropout rate is 7.1% versus 4.2%. Rankings have been volatile: both schools earned 1 star in 2023–2024, dropped in 2024–2025, then partly recovered in 2025–2026, with the secondary school moving from the 6th to the 20th percentile and regaining 1 star, while the elementary improved from the 4th to the 7th percentile and remains at 0 stars. Some data points are suppressed (—), meaning they are unknown, not zero.