WCA Middle School

As a tight-knit 6-8 campus in BARRETT, Minnesota, WCA Middle School serves 232 students from grades 5 through 8, run under WEST CENTRAL AREA. Compared to the state average of about 495 students per school, that is 53% below typical.

WCA Middle School is one of 4 schools operated by WEST CENTRAL AREA, a district that hosts 743 students overall.

On demographics, WCA Middle School reports that the student body is overwhelmingly White (94%). Other groups include 3% Hispanic, 2% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.2:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 17.5:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 35% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, WCA Middle School is in the bottom 10% of Minnesota public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 46.3%; WCA Middle School posts 34.0%, -12.3 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Grant County shows the typical household earns roughly $73,917 per year, 21% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Across Grant County's 8 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,012 students), WCA Middle School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is WEST CENTRAL AREA SECONDARY, roughly 0.0 miles away. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. On composite proficiency, WCA Middle School comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 48.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a rural area.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at WCA Middle School has declined 6%, going from 246 students in 2018 to 232 in 2025. The White share of enrollment edged up from 90% to 94% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 18.2:1 in 2018 to 15.2:1 today.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.