Summary:
ZIP code 56277 is home to two public schools — BOLD-Bird Island Elementary, which serves prekindergarten through grade 6, and BOLD Senior High School, which serves grades 7 through 12 — both part of the Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian (BOLD) district and enrolling 463 students combined. There is no standalone middle school, so seventh and eighth graders attend the high school building. Both schools share the same district rating of 2 stars, roughly the 32nd percentile of Minnesota schools.
BOLD-Bird Island Elementary is the academic standout of the two. Its all-grade math proficiency of 45.7% is above both the district's 33.3% and the state's 44.9%, and its science score of 29.4% beats the district's 23.6% and the state's 25.5%. Fourth grade math is a clear bright spot at 65.5%, the highest proficiency figure in this data set. Reading is the weak spot: 37.2% proficient versus 48.6% statewide. The school's rank also slipped from 66th percentile and 3 stars in 2023–2024 to 37th percentile and 2 stars in 2025–2026, with all-grade math falling from 70.93% to 45.7%.
BOLD Senior High School tells the opposite story: completion outcomes outpace test scores. Only 18.4% of students are proficient in math, far below the state's 44.9%, with 11th grade at 11.1%, 8th grade at 16.3%, and 7th grade at 24.6%. Reading is 34.3%, also below the state's 48.6% — making reading the shared weakness across both schools. Yet the high school graduates 88.2% of students, above the state's 84.9%, with a 3.9% dropout rate just under the state's 4.2%, and its student–teacher ratio of 8.8 is lower than the elementary school's 10.9. Notably, the elementary school has a higher free/reduced lunch rate (49.62% versus 33.5%) and larger classes, yet stronger math and science results.
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