Proctor Public Schools (ISD 704)
Proctor Public Schools, ISD 704, enrolled about 1,848 students in 2024-2025 across four attendance-area buildings: two elementaries, one middle school, one high school. The thing a buyer needs to know before anything else is that the district boundary and the city boundary are not the same. Both Proctor elementaries have Duluth mailing addresses, and at least one entire Duluth neighborhood, Bayview Heights, is assigned to Proctor schools. In this corner of St. Louis County, the mailing address is not evidence about the district.
About Proctor Public Schools
ISD 704 covers the City of Proctor and a substantial spread of surrounding township land west and north of Duluth, including ground that carries Duluth addresses. It reported 120 teacher FTE against 1,848 students, a student-teacher ratio of about 15.4 to 1 (NCES Common Core of Data, accessed 2026-08-14). That is a staffing ratio rather than an average class size.
Proctor is the older and cheaper of the two small Minnesota-side districts a Duluth-area buyer usually considers. Where Hermantown is newer housing on the ridge with a growing enrollment, Proctor is a railroad town with a smaller price point and a district that has held roughly steady. Both offer the same core proposition against Duluth: a smaller school and a shorter chain of decisions between a parent and a principal.
Schools in the district
Bay View Elementary is the larger of the two elementaries at 529 students, running preschool through grade 5. Pike Lake Elementary runs kindergarten through grade 5 with 293. A.I. Jedlicka Middle School takes grades 6 to 8 with 450, and Proctor Senior High School takes grades 9 to 12 with 540.
Beyond the four, the district operates an Early Childhood Center, the Rails Academy alternative program for grades 9 to 12, and a correctional education site at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center in Saginaw. Those three enroll from across the district or from outside it entirely, which is why the federal count reads seven schools rather than four.
Enrollment & performance
At 1,848 students, ISD 704 sits between Esko at 1,287 and Cloquet at 2,529, and about a fifth the size of Duluth's ISD 709. The high school comparison most families make is Proctor's 540 against Hermantown's 655 and Duluth East's 1,495.
Minnesota publishes no single district grade, and this guide does not create one. The Minnesota Report Card carries the state's achievement, progress, graduation, and attendance reporting broken out by school and student group, and it is the honest place to look.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2024-2025 release (LEA 2730090), accessed 2026-08-14 (2024-2025).
Attendance boundaries
Two separate boundary questions apply here, and buyers routinely conflate them.
The first is whether an address is in the district at all. Because ISD 704 takes in township land with Duluth mailing addresses, and because Bayview Heights is a Duluth neighborhood on a Proctor assignment, you cannot read the district off the address. The published path for Bayview Heights runs Bay View Elementary to A.I. Jedlicka to Proctor Senior High, but the line may differ by grade at the edges of the neighborhood.
The second is which of the two elementaries applies. Unlike Hermantown or Esko, ISD 704 has a real internal elementary boundary between Bay View and Pike Lake. Both questions are answered by the district for a specific parcel, and both are worth answering before an offer rather than after.
Neighborhoods this district serves
Two neighborhoods in this guide sit in ISD 704: Proctor itself and Bayview Heights, which is inside the City of Duluth. Buyers comparing small districts usually put Proctor next to Hermantown, which is newer and more expensive, and Esko in Carlton County, which is smaller still. Those wanting to stay in Duluth's own district look at Spirit Valley or Denfeld, which are in ISD 709 and share much of Proctor's price point and housing age.
Common questions about Proctor Public Schools
I have a Duluth address. Can I still be in the Proctor district?
Yes, and this is the single most misunderstood fact about ISD 704. Bayview Heights is a Duluth neighborhood assigned to Proctor schools, and both Proctor elementaries, Bay View and Pike Lake, carry Duluth mailing addresses in the federal directory. Never infer the district from the mailing address here. Confirm the parcel with the district.
Which elementary would my child attend?
Bay View or Pike Lake, depending on address. Bay View is the larger at 529 students and runs PK-5; Pike Lake runs K-5 with 293. This is a genuine internal boundary, unlike Hermantown or Esko where there is only one building per level, and the line can differ by grade near the edges. Ask the district for the specific address rather than working from a map.
How big is Proctor Senior High?
540 students in grades 9 to 12 as of 2024-2025. That puts it between Hermantown at 655 and Cloquet Senior High at 761, and well under Duluth East at 1,495. Everything downstream of school size, from team rosters to elective range, follows from that.
What is the Rails Academy?
The district's alternative learning program for grades 9 to 12. Programs like it enroll from across the district rather than from an attendance area, which is why the federal school count for ISD 704 says seven while a parent would reasonably say four.
Where these facts come from
- NCES Common Core of Data, district and school directory 2024-2025, Proctor Public School District (LEA 2730090) accessed 2026-08-14
- Proctor Public Schools, district website accessed 2026-08-14
- Minnesota Report Card, Minnesota Department of Education accessed 2026-08-14