DEER RIVER SECONDARY

DEER RIVER SECONDARY operates as a middle-of-the-pack senior high in DEER RIVER, Minnesota, part of DEER RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT. Current enrollment sits at 425 students spanning grades 6 through 12.

Across the 4 schools in DEER RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT (833 students total), DEER RIVER SECONDARY accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, DEER RIVER SECONDARY shows that the largest single group is White at 51%, but no single group is in the majority. Other groups include 35% Native American, 13% multiracial. That is considerably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 89%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 40 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 16.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 59% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Itasca County (around 48%), the school's rate is north of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, DEER RIVER SECONDARY performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 33.3%, the actual is 30.0%, a residual of -3.3 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Itasca County indicate the typical household earns roughly $68,603 per year, 26% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. In all, Itasca County runs 26 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,407 students), of which DEER RIVER SECONDARY is one.

The closest other public school is Deer River High School ALP, roughly 0.0 miles away. Within five miles, there are 3 other public schools. On composite proficiency, DEER RIVER SECONDARY comes 4th of 4 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 51.9%.

Geographically, the school is in an outlying area.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at DEER RIVER SECONDARY has changed only slightly, going from 429 students in 2018 to 425 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 10.7:1 today.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.