Prairie Winds Middle School

Prairie Winds Middle School, a sprawling middle school in MANKATO, Minnesota, one of the schools within MANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, instructs 887 students, covering grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 79% bigger than the state mean of about 495.

Within MANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, which oversees 22 schools and 8,219 students, Prairie Winds Middle School is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Prairie Winds Middle School reports that White students make up the majority at 63%; the rest consists of 19% Black, 9% Hispanic, 6% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 85% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Prairie Winds Middle School shows 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.9:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 43% of students at Prairie Winds Middle School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

After controlling for student poverty, Prairie Winds Middle School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 42.0%; this one delivers 42.0%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Blue Earth County indicate median household income runs about $74,477, 34% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Blue Earth County runs 31 public schools (combined enrollment of about 9,034 students), of which Prairie Winds Middle School is one.

Nearest neighbor: MANKATO EAST SENIOR HIGH, around 0.9 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Prairie Winds Middle School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Prairie Winds Middle School at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 45.4%.

Prairie Winds Middle School operates from an inner-city location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Prairie Winds Middle School's enrollment has shrank 8% since 2018, when it stood at 962 (now 887). The White share of enrollment shrank from 72% to 63% over that span.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Prairie Winds Middle School typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.