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Sterling, North Dakota - 1 schools
At $37,091 per pupil, Sterling 35 ranks #5 of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending (North Dakota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
19
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$37,091
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sterling 35 operates 1 public schools serving 19 students, placing it among the smallest districts in North Dakota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined 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 Burleigh County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $37,091 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 17 of 168 North Dakota districts by per-pupil spending. See how North Dakota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 63.3% local, 22.4% state, and 14.3% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 21:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 4.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 100.0% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Sterling Elementary School, enrolling 21 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Sterling Elementary School accounts for 100.0% of all Sterling 35 student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Sterling 35 a distant remainder — means Sterling 35-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates 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.
Sterling 35 student-counselor ratio is 21:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Sterling 35 chronic absenteeism rate is 4.8% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.