Elementary Schools in St. Francis Area Schools

Elementary Schools located in St. Francis Area Schools comprise three schools — Cedar Creek Elementary School, St. Francis Elementary, and East Bethel Elementary School — serving kindergarten through fifth grade, with St. Francis Elementary also serving pre-kindergarten, and enrolling 1,761 students in total across the St. Francis area of Minnesota.

St. Francis Elementary is the academic leader: it is the only 4-star school in the group, ranking 237th of 869 schools at the 73rd percentile, and it scores above both the district and the state in every reported grade and subject. Its All Grades proficiency is 60.5% in math, 58.3% in reading, and 30.5% in science — though its rank percentile has slipped from 81st to 73rd over three years, and math fell from 65.89% to 60.5%. East Bethel Elementary is the school to watch, rising from the 55th to the 66th percentile between 2023–24 and 2025–26 and the only school improving in all three subjects year over year (math +5.9, reading +2.3, science +4.1 points). Cedar Creek Elementary, the largest school with 680 students, has the lowest current standing — 48th percentile with 2 stars, down from the 60th percentile — and trails the district in reading and science.

Science is the shared weakness district-wide, with even the strongest schools only around 30% proficient. Fifth grade shows the sharpest split: St. Francis is at 53.7% in math versus 40.3% at East Bethel and 33.3% at Cedar Creek, while fifth grade reading is a bright spot, with all three schools above the state and East Bethel at 71.2%. Poverty rates and class size do not tell a simple story — East Bethel has the highest free/reduced lunch rate and lowest student–teacher ratio yet is improving, while Cedar Creek has the lowest free/reduced lunch rate but the lowest ranking.