Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center

Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center is a low-enrollment elementary campus in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, overseen by Clear Lake School District. The school educates 266 students in grades pre-K through 6.

Clear Lake School District runs 3 schools in total, collectively educating 527 students. Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center lists that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder is composed of 5% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 39% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 53.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 52.0%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Polk County) records that median household income runs about $77,219, roughly 24% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Polk County's 26 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,126 students), Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center is one campus in the mix.

Clear Lake High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center comes 7th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 60.6%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 21%: 338 students in 2018 compared to 266 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 today.

On this page, members of the Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.