Golden Lake Elementary

Golden Lake Elementary is one of the reasonably sized K-5 schools in CIRCLE PINES, Minnesota, run under Centennial Public School District, with 394 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5.

Centennial Public School District runs 15 schools in total, collectively educating 6,851 students. Golden Lake Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Golden Lake Elementary logs that the largest single group is White, at 58% of enrollment. Other groups include 12% Hispanic, 11% Black, 10% Asian, 8% multiracial. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 75%.

On the resource side, On paper, Golden Lake Elementary has 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.0:1. The state averages about 13.7:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 38% of students at Golden Lake Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Golden Lake Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 44.5%; this one delivers 53.5%.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Anoka County indicate the typical household earns roughly $101,869 per year, roughly 32% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Anoka County's 145 public schools (combined enrollment of about 59,656 students), Golden Lake Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Karner Blue Education Center, around 1.4 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Golden Lake Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 61.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 3%: 381 students in 2018 compared to 394 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 65% to 58% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.1:1 in 2018 to 14.0:1 in 2025.

On this page, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.