LILA Upper School

Located at 19850 FENWAY AVENUE N, in FOREST LAKE, Minnesota, LILA Upper School is a sprawling four-year high school that works with 579 students (grades 6 through 12), one of the schools within Lakes International Language Academ. By comparison, Minnesota's public schools average about 371 students each, so LILA Upper School sits 56% above that benchmark.

Lakes International Language Academ runs 2 schools in total, collectively educating 1,186 students. LILA Upper School is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, LILA Upper School reports that the largest single group is White, at 77% of enrollment. Beyond that, the school records 12% Hispanic, 6% multiracial, 4% Asian, 2% Black. Compared to Washington County overall, the school's racial mix sits in roughly the same range.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, LILA Upper School has 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 16.3:1 average. Roughly 15% of students at LILA Upper School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Washington County (around 26%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

After controlling for student poverty, LILA Upper School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 56.8%, the actual is 47.3%, a residual of -9.5 points.

In the broader community, census data for Washington County shows median household income runs about $115,345, roughly 49% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Washington County runs 103 public schools (combined enrollment of about 46,313 students), of which LILA Upper School is one.

The closest other public school is Forest Lake Area High School, roughly 1.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, LILA Upper School comes 1st of 5 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 41.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area. As a public charter, LILA Upper School runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 75%: 331 students in 2018 compared to 579 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 85% to 77% across the same window.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.