Wrenshall School District Sees Rise In Student Enrollment

WRENSHALL, Minn. — One of the Northland’s smaller schools has gotten a bit bigger this year.

District officials tell us Wrenshall is experiencing an almost 10% bump in total enrollment. The school serves grades K through 12. Most of the new students are in kindergarten and 4th grade. School Board Chair Mary Carlson believes that’s a good sign for the district’s future.

“So, we struggled, like many schools did during the pandemic. Years we definitely saw a decrease in our enrollment, and then it started to come up again in the last year and a half,” said Carlson. “Last year we were anticipating a decline in enrollment simply because we had a large senior class graduating, so we projected enrollment at 315 for this coming school year, and as of the first day of school, we had 343 students show up.”

The small school faces competition from other districts in the area, but Carlson believes there’s a reason Wrenshall in particular, has grown.

“We’re a small school cultivating big futures, and there’s something really special about having a K 12 program that is 343 students total. It means that we’re family here. You’re not just a number. You are absolutely a name. When you walk in this building, our principal knows parents’ names for just about every one of those students,” said Carlson.

And to keep that one-on-one attention going with more students, the district has spit up its kindergarten and 4th grade students into two classrooms for each grade.