Summary:
Climax-Shelly Public Schools in Minnesota has one elementary school, Climax Elementary, serving grades PK–5 in Climax, Minnesota, with 65 students. That makes this a single-school case study rather than a comparison among multiple elementary schools in the area.
Its state rankings are in the bottom decile. In 2025–26 it ranked 807 of 869, in the 7th percentile with 0 stars, while the district ranked 419 of 458, in the 9th percentile with 0 stars. The school’s rank was 833 of 872 in 2024–25 and 673 of 881 in 2023–24, so it worsened sharply and then improved only slightly. In 2025–26 all-grade proficiency was 20.0% in math, 17.1% in reading, and 9.1% in science, compared with state averages of 44.9%, 48.6%, and 25.5%. Grade-level results show math at 36.4% in 3rd grade, 23.1% in 4th, and an exact reported 0.0% in 5th; reading was 18.2%, 15.4%, and 18.2%; 5th-grade science was 9.1%. District grade-level percentages match the school’s, as expected for the only elementary school shown.
Context matters: 73.85% of students received free/reduced lunch in 2024–25, and the student-teacher ratio was a favorable 8.8. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, all-grade math rose from 16.13% to 20.0% and reading from 16.13% to 17.1%; 2024–25 school science was suppressed, so it is unknown. The school outperformed district all-grade math and science but trailed in reading, while district all-grade figures differed and likely include other grades or schools. Overall, this is a very small, high-poverty school with a low student-teacher ratio and bottom-decile state results, with the largest relative challenge in reading and a 0.0% 5th-grade math result in 2025–26.
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