Duluth Public Schools (ISD 709)
Duluth Public Schools, ISD 709, is the largest district in this guide: about 8,723 students in 2024-2025, spread across 14 attendance-area schools inside the City of Duluth. Ten elementaries, two middle schools, and two high schools carry the neighborhood assignments. The line that matters most to a buyer is the east-west split between Duluth East and Denfeld, because it decides the middle and high pathway for the next twelve years, and because a handful of neighborhoods sit close enough to it that no published map settles the question.
About Duluth Public Schools
ISD 709 covers the whole City of Duluth plus a band of surrounding township land, which means it is the default district for every Duluth neighborhood page in this guide. It reported 633 teacher FTE against 8,723 students in 2024-2025, a student-teacher ratio of about 13.8 to 1 (NCES Common Core of Data, accessed 2026-08-14). Read that as a staffing ratio and not as a class size: it counts every teaching position in the district against every enrolled student, and actual class sizes are set building by building and run higher.
The district reorganized its buildings substantially in the 2010s, closing and consolidating schools and rebuilding others. That history matters for a buyer in one specific way: older guidance, older listing copy, and older conversations with locals sometimes reference schools or boundaries that no longer exist in that form. Anything you are told about attendance areas should be checked against the district's current maps rather than against memory.
Schools in the district
Ten elementaries carry attendance areas: Congdon, Homecroft, Lakewood, Laura MacArthur, Lester Park, Lowell, Myers-Wilkins, Piedmont, and Stowe, with Lowell also housing a separate Spanish immersion program that the federal data counts as its own school. Enrollment across the elementaries in 2024-2025 ranged from 245 at Stowe to 510 at Lester Park.
Two middle schools take grades 6 to 8: Lincoln Park Middle School at 606 students and Ordean East Middle School at 1,037. Two high schools take grades 9 to 12: Denfeld at 951 and East High School at 1,495. The size gap between the two pairs is the clearest single fact about how the district is balanced, and it is a fair question to ask the district about directly, since it affects course offerings, activity options, and how far a student travels.
Beyond those 14 buildings, the federal file carries another seventeen records under ISD 709: alternative learning centers attached to each secondary building, an independent-study program, early childhood special education, a virtual academy, several care-and-treatment and correctional education sites, and one inactive program still listed. These enroll students from across the district and have no attendance boundary. That is why a school count for ISD 709 can be quoted as 14, 19, 28, 30, or 31 depending on what is being counted, and why this page leads with the 14 that a home address actually determines.
Enrollment & performance
The 8,723 figure is the 2024-2025 Common Core of Data membership count. Minnesota does not publish a single district grade or score, and this guide does not invent one. The state's own reporting lives on the Minnesota Report Card, which breaks out achievement, progress, graduation, and attendance by school and by student group, and that is the right place to form a judgment rather than a commercial rating site. We link it and leave the interpretation to you.
For a buyer comparing across the state line, note that Minnesota and Wisconsin measure and report school performance differently, so a Duluth school and a Superior school cannot be ranked against each other on state numbers. Compare them on things that are actually comparable: size, grade configuration, program offerings, and travel time.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2024-2025 release (LEA 2711040), accessed 2026-08-14 (2024-2025).
Attendance boundaries
The district assigns by address. The elementary boundaries are relatively settled and follow neighborhood lines closely enough that most Duluth addresses have an obvious answer. The middle and high boundaries are the ones to verify, because they run through the middle of the city rather than around the edge of a neighborhood.
Duluth Heights is the sharpest example: it straddles both a middle and a high boundary, and depending on the exact address a family can land at Lincoln Park Middle and Denfeld or at Ordean East and Duluth East. Park Point, Canal Park, and the Kenwood and East End edges have their own ambiguities. This guide states the typical pathway on each neighborhood page and tells you to confirm, rather than publishing a guess. School assignment is the field families weight most heavily, and a wrong answer here is expensive.
Neighborhoods this district serves
Seventeen neighborhoods in this guide sit inside ISD 709: Canal Park, Congdon Park, Denfeld, Duluth Heights, East End and Endion, Fond du Lac, Hunters Park, Kenwood, Lakeside, Lester Park, Lincoln Park, Morgan Park, the North Shore strip, Park Point, Piedmont, Spirit Valley, and Woodland. Each neighborhood page states its own assigned elementary, middle, and high school, and flags where the boundary is genuinely uncertain.
Buyers who want a smaller district within commuting distance usually look at Hermantown or Proctor on the Minnesota side, or across the bay at the School District of Superior, where the price of housing is lower and the tax structure is different.
Duluth's front door: a warehouse district turned lakefront promenade, at the foot of the lift bridge.
Congdon ParkOld money, old elms, and a creek out the back door.
DenfeldThe most house per dollar in Duluth, and a high school worth the walk.
Duluth HeightsDuluth's most convenient address, wrapped around the shopping.
East End / EndionDuluth's boom-era hillside, where the mansions and the streetcar city meet.
Fond du LacThe oldest community in Duluth, 14 miles from downtown, at the bottom of the lake.
Hunter's ParkTurrets, curving streets, and Hartley Park at the end of the block.
KenwoodA grocery you can walk to, and eight minutes to everything else.
LakesideDuluth's dry-town-turned-walkable-village, three blocks from the big lake.
Lester ParkNine miles of trail, two rivers, and a waterfall you can hear from the driveway.
Lincoln ParkThe West End that became the Craft District, and still costs half the city median.
Morgan ParkThe concrete company town US Steel built, and the neighborhood that outlived the mill.
North Shore (Duluth)Duluth's last two miles: lakefront on one side of the road, woods on the other.
Park PointSeven miles of sand between a working harbor and the biggest lake in the world.
PiedmontRocky singletrack out the back door, harbor views out the front.
Spirit ValleyWest Duluth's main street, with a ski hill at the end of it.
WoodlandThe streetcar suburb that grew into Duluth's university neighborhood.
Common questions about Duluth Public Schools
How big is ISD 709?
About 8,723 students across the district in 2024-2025 (NCES Common Core of Data, accessed 2026-08-14). That makes it the largest district in this guide by a wide margin. The next largest, the School District of Superior across the bay, is under half its size.
Which high school will my child attend?
One of two: Duluth East or Denfeld. The line runs roughly north to south through the city, with East serving the east side and Denfeld the west. East is much the larger of the two, 1,495 students against 951. Some neighborhoods near the line, Duluth Heights most notably, are genuinely ambiguous on published maps and need confirming with the district for the specific address.
Does ISD 709 have a language immersion program?
Yes. Lowell Elementary operates a Spanish immersion program alongside its regular K-5 program, and the Common Core of Data counts them as two schools at one site, with 329 and 312 students respectively in 2024-2025. Immersion enrollment works differently from ordinary attendance-area assignment, so ask the district how placement works rather than assuming your address decides it.
Why does the school count vary depending on where I look?
Because the federal data counts programs, not just buildings. Only 14 schools in ISD 709 are attendance-area buildings with a boundary. Federal data carries roughly twice that many records, the rest being alternative learning programs, early childhood, a virtual academy, and care-and-treatment or correctional education sites that enroll from across the district, plus at least one inactive program still listed. A figure like 19, 28, or 30 schools is not wrong, it is counting something other than the buildings your address is assigned to.
Where these facts come from
- NCES Common Core of Data, district and school directory 2024-2025, Duluth Public School District (LEA 2711040) accessed 2026-08-14
- Duluth Public Schools ISD 709, district website accessed 2026-08-14
- Minnesota Report Card, Minnesota Department of Education accessed 2026-08-14