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Sartell, Minnesota - 6 schools
142
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
-
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Benton-Stearns Education District operates 6 public schools serving 142 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Minnesota. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 combined, 1 high, 1 elementary schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Stearns County.
The funding mix is 27.1% local, 43.4% state, and 29.5% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
and 51.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 81.6% White, 7.3% African American, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Grafton School, with a diversity index of 46.0/100.
Benton-Stearns Ed District Ec accounts for 58.2% of all Benton-Stearns Education District student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Benton-Stearns Education District a distant remainder — means Benton-Stearns Education District-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Benton-Stearns Education District school enrollment varies 12× across entities
Benton-Stearns Education District school enrollment ranges from 8 students (lowest) to 99 students (highest), a spread of 91 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Benton-Stearns Education District has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 53.9% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Benton-Stearns Education District chronic absenteeism rate is 51.9% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Comparisons are relative to Benton-Stearns Education District's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Minnesota
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.
How many schools are in Benton-Stearns Education District?
Benton-Stearns Education District has 6 schools, including 4 combined, 1 high, 1 elementary. Total enrollment is 142 students.
What is the demographic composition of Benton-Stearns Education District?
Benton-Stearns Education District students are 81.6% White, 7.3% African American, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 1.8% Asian, averaged across 6 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.