Summary
Pine City Elementary is a PK–6 school with 863 students in Pine City, MN, and the flagship elementary of the Pine City Public School District. It ranks 543 of 869 elementary schools statewide (38th percentile, 2 stars) in 2025–2026, with a stable ten-year record: 2 stars every year since 2015–2016 and a percentile that has stayed in the 35–45 band. About 43% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and the student–teacher ratio is 15.0.
In academics, Pine City posts 41.6% proficiency in math, 40.8% in reading, and 24.3% in science, versus state figures of 44.9%, 48.6%, and 25.5%. Science is a relative strength, beating Braham Elementary, C.E. Jacobson Elementary, and Hinckley Elementary by roughly 9–10 points and topping the district by 6.1 points. Reading is the clearest deficit, trailing the state by 7.8 points. The most telling comparison is Mora Elementary School: it has 862 students, a nearly identical 43.6% free/reduced-lunch rate, and a 15.1 ratio, yet ranks in the 80th percentile with 4 stars and posts proficiency 19.2 points higher in math, 21.0 points higher in reading, and 9.0 points higher in science. That gap suggests Pine City’s results are not explained by enrollment size, poverty, and staffing alone.
Trends show slippage. All-grades reading has fallen four straight years to 40.8%, math has fallen three years to 41.6%, and science dropped from 46.79% in 2022–2023 before recovering to 24.3%. Within grades, math declines from 47% in 3rd to 33.8% in 6th, while reading jumps from 33.9% in 3rd and 28.4% in 4th to 55.4% in 5th and 45.4% in 6th—a 19-point internal swing. Early-grade reading is the weakest area relative to all five schools. Subgroup results are uneven: male students rank 44th percentile and improving, female students 28th and declining, low-SES students 39th after falling from 55th, and special education students 15th and volatile. Bottom line: Pine City is a stable, mid-pack school with stronger science than its neighbors, clear weak points in early reading and 6th-grade math, and a Mora comparison suggesting a higher ceiling.
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