BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST.

As an one-room-style unified-grade school in MELROSE, Minnesota, BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. teaches 10 students from grades pre-K through 12, part of WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION DISTRICT. By comparison, Minnesota's public schools average about 50 students each, so BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. sits 80% below that benchmark.

WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION DISTRICT runs 4 schools in total, collectively educating 91 students. BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. reports that the most-represented group is White (50%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 30% Hispanic, 20% multiracial. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 82%.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 2 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 5.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 6.4:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 30% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Stearns County runs at roughly 44%, so the school's eligibility rate is lower than the surrounding baseline.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Stearns County) reports that median household income runs about $77,066, roughly 29% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Stearns County's 74 public schools (combined enrollment of about 24,160 students), BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: WEST CENTRAL AREA LEARNING CENTER, around 0.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 5 other public schools cluster around BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST..

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count expanded 25%: 8 students in 2018 compared to 10 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 100% to 50%. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 4.0:1 in 2018 to 5.0:1 today.

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