Compiled from official source data by PlainSchools.
6 public K-12 schools in Circle Pines from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Circle Pines has more public-school enrollment than 30% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Centennial High School enrolls 67.2% of Circle Pines's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.
Secondary campuses occupy an unusually large share
3 of the 6 listed Circle Pines schools are classified as high schools, a substantial share of the local portfolio. Advanced-course access, counseling, and graduation-stage staffing therefore have more weight in the city Resource Index average than they do in an elementary-heavy system.
A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales
Circle Pines lists only 6 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 8 to 2,067 students, a 258-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.
City enrollment
Top 70%
School count
Top 79%
Resource Index average
42nd percentile
Teacher staffing
39th percentile
Centennial High School accounts for 67.2% of all Circle Pines public-school enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Circle Pines a distant remainder — means Circle Pines-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Circle Pines school enrollment varies 258× across entities
Circle Pines school enrollment ranges from 8 students (lowest) to 2,067 students (highest), a spread of 2,059 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Circle Pines operates one school district — a single-district system
Circle Pines's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Circle Pines student-teacher ratio is 16.4:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Circle Pines is typically wider than the Circle Pines-aggregate figure suggests.
Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Circle Pines
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
What do families ask about schools in Circle Pines?
Which Circle Pines school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼
Golden Lake Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Circle Pines schools in this federal-data comparison at 52/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
How many schools are in Circle Pines, MN? ▼
Circle Pines has 6 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,074 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.4:1.
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio,
counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes:
verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
