Best Public Schools in Zip Code 55735

Zip code 55735 covers Finlayson, Minnesota, and lists four schools — two elementary schools serving grades PK–6 and two high schools serving grades 7–12 — with a combined enrollment of 790 students. Three of the four belong to the East Central School District, which enrolls 732 students, or about 92.7% of the local total, while Finlayson Elementary is the only school here from the Hinckley-Finlayson School District. East Central Elementary is the largest school at 391 students, and Crossroads Area Learning Center is the smallest at 32.

Academically, Finlayson Elementary is the clearest math standout: 57.1% of students were proficient in 2025–2026, above the state's 44.9% and well above its district's 33.1%, and its 30.0% science proficiency also beats the state's 25.5%. It ranks in the 60th percentile with 3 stars, up from 2 stars, and has the lowest student-teacher ratio here at 10.1, though with only 58 students results can swing widely. East Central Senior Secondary showed the biggest turnaround, rising to the 53rd percentile and 3 stars from 1 star, and its science results (26.7% overall, 37.7% End of Course) top the state — but math (20.6%) and reading (29.7%) lag, alongside a 76.1% graduation rate and 9.5% dropout rate. East Central Elementary beats its district in math and reading (both 39.8%) yet has very low science (7.5%) and a rank that has slid from the 50th to the 33rd percentile over three years.

Crossroads Area Learning Center has the highest need indicators locally: 71.88% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and its 13.6% dropout rate is the highest in the zip and more than triple the state's 4.2%, though its 77.2% graduation rate is slightly above the other East Central high school. All of its 2025–2026 test scores are suppressed by the state for privacy, so proficiency cannot be judged from this data. One zip-wide pattern stands out: no school here matches the state reading average of 48.6%, with the highest at 39.8%. Parents should also read any — value as suppressed rather than zero, since small enrollments at Finlayson and Crossroads limit how much a single score means.