Summary:
Climax Secondary is the only high school in Climax-Shelly Public Schools, a small rural district in Climax, Minnesota, serving 94 students in grades 6–12 with a 13:1 student-teacher ratio. Because it is the district's sole secondary school, its results are the district's results — there is no other local school to compare it with, so the useful comparisons are against Minnesota averages and against the school's own past performance.
The school's academic picture is mixed, with reading as its relative bright spot and math as its most serious weakness. In 2025–2026, all-grades reading proficiency was 26.8%, above the district's 22.4% and an improvement of 2.8 points from the prior year, though still 21.8 points below the state's 48.6%. All-grades math was 7.7%, far below the state's 44.9%, with 7th-grade math at 9.1% and 8th-grade math at 8.3%. Science fell sharply from 20% to 8.7% in one year, and 8th-grade science was reported at 0% versus 16.7% statewide. Some scores — 11th-grade and 6th-grade math and 6th-grade reading — were suppressed by the state to protect student privacy, so those results are unknown.
Graduation and dropout data reinforce the concerns: the 2024–2025 graduation rate was 78.5% against 84.9% statewide, and the dropout rate was 7.1% versus 4.2%, about 69% higher than the state. The school ranked 377 of 473 (20th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–2026, up from 421 of 450 (6th percentile, 0 stars) the year before, while the district ranks 419 of 458. With 58.51% of students on free or reduced lunch and only 94 students enrolled, grade-level cohorts are tiny, so single-year swings and suppressed scores should be read cautiously.
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