School District of Superior
The School District of Superior enrolled about 3,900 students in 2024-2025 across seven attendance-area schools: five elementaries, Superior Middle School, and Superior High School. It is the second largest district in this guide after Duluth's ISD 709, and the only one on the Wisconsin side. It serves considerably more ground than the City of Superior, taking in four surrounding towns and two villages, which is exactly the kind of thing a buyer working from a 54880 ZIP code gets wrong.
About Superior schools
Superior is the Wisconsin half of the Twin Ports, and its district is the natural comparison for any family weighing a Duluth address against a cheaper one across the bay. It reported 267 teacher FTE against 3,900 students, a student-teacher ratio of about 14.6 to 1 (NCES Common Core of Data, accessed 2026-08-14), which is a staffing ratio and not an average class size.
The district describes its own service area as the City of Superior, the Towns of Oakland, Parkland, Summit, and Superior, and the Villages of Oliver and Superior. Read that list carefully. Three separate governments carry the Superior name: the city, the much smaller village south of it on US 2 and US 53, and the town surrounding it. An address in 54880 can sit in any of the three, and while several of them share this school district, they do not share tax rates or municipal services.
Schools in the district
Five elementaries carry attendance areas, all running preschool through grade 5: Northern Lights at 453, Cooper at 363, Great Lakes at 348, Bryant at 283, and Four Corners at 200. Older write-ups of Superior sometimes count four elementaries, or describe Northern Lights as a program rather than a neighborhood school. Five is the current number and Northern Lights is the largest of them.
Superior Middle School takes grades 6 to 8 with 888 students, and Superior High School takes grades 9 to 12 with 1,256. Because there is one middle school and one high school, every elementary feeds the same secondary pathway; the only internal boundary question in the district is which of the five elementaries applies to a given address.
A district preschool enrolls 109. One further building, Lake Superior Elementary, appears in the federal directory flagged as closed and is not an operating school.
Enrollment & performance
At about 3,900 students the district is roughly 45 percent the size of ISD 709. Superior High School, at 1,256, is the second largest high school in this guide, larger than Denfeld and smaller than Duluth East.
Two totals circulate for this district and both are correct, so it is worth knowing which is which. The 3,900 figure is the federal 2024-2025 Common Core of Data count, and it is the one the building-level enrollments on this page add up to. The district's own September 2025 count is 3,732, a year newer and about 170 students lower. Read the pair as a trend rather than a discrepancy: enrollment here is declining modestly, which is the regional pattern and is worth asking the district about if you are buying on a long horizon.
Wisconsin reports school and district accountability through the Department of Public Instruction, whose WISEdash portal carries report cards, enrollment, and outcome data. This is the point where cross-border buyers most often go wrong: Wisconsin and Minnesota use different tests, different cut scores, and different report card formats, so a Superior school and a Duluth school cannot be honestly ranked against each other on state numbers. Any site that shows them on one leaderboard is comparing things that are not comparable. Compare size, grade configuration, program offerings, and drive time instead, and read each state's own reporting on its own terms.
The other genuine cross-border difference is money rather than schooling. Wisconsin applies its School Levy, First Dollar, and Lottery and Gaming credits directly to the property tax bill, while Minnesota uses a homestead market value exclusion and a separate property tax refund. Two similar houses on either side of the bay can carry noticeably different effective costs, and the school district is only one input into that.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2024-2025 release (LEA 5514670), accessed 2026-08-14. The per-building figures on this page come from the same release and sum to this total. (2024-2025).
Attendance boundaries
Two questions, in order. First, is the address in the district at all? Given how much township and village ground the district covers, and how routinely mapping services conflate the city, village, and town of Superior, this is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Second, which elementary? With five buildings there is a real internal boundary, and it is the one thing a Superior buyer with young children should settle before making an offer. The middle and high assignment needs no research, since there is only one of each.
Neighborhoods this district serves
Eight communities in this guide sit in the district: the City of Superior overview page, plus Superior's downtown, Central Park, North End, South End, Billings Park, and the Allouez and Itasca area, and the Village of Oliver out toward the Oliver Bridge. Douglas County communities further south and east, including Lake Nebagamon and Poplar, are in the Maple School District instead, and Solon Springs has its own district, so the county is not one district by any means.
Flat, affordable, and across the bridge: the working half of the Twin Ports.
Downtown SuperiorSuperior's main street, mid-restoration: 1890s blocks, cheap space, and a brewery scene.
Central Park (Superior)Superior's old-money grid: 1890s houses on wide lots, ten minutes from everything.
North End (Superior)Superior's working waterfront neighborhood, and the address the brewery scene chose.
South End (South Superior)The quiet half of Superior: postwar houses, big yards, and the cheapest space per dollar in the metro.
Billings Park (Superior)Superior's river bluff: a signature park, a view of Duluth, and the quietest streets in the city.
Allouez-Itasca (Superior)Superior's far east end: ore docks, Wisconsin Point, and the cheapest water-adjacent land in the Twin Ports.
OliverFive miles from Superior across the river, with a Wisconsin tax bill.
Common questions about Superior schools
How many elementary schools does Superior have?
Five: Bryant, Cooper, Four Corners, Great Lakes, and Northern Lights, all running preschool through grade 5. Older sources sometimes say four, or describe Northern Lights as something other than a neighborhood elementary. Five is correct, and Northern Lights is the largest of them at 453 students. A sixth, Lake Superior Elementary, appears in the federal file marked closed.
Does the district cover more than the city?
Yes. It serves the City of Superior, the Towns of Oakland, Parkland, Summit, and Superior, and the Villages of Oliver and Superior. This is worth checking carefully, because three separate governments use the Superior name and a 54880 address can sit in the city, the village, or the town, with different taxes and services even where the school district is the same.
Is Oliver in this district?
Yes. The Village of Oliver is named directly in the district's own list of the communities it serves, and the federal school district boundary agrees. The neighboring Maple School District does not reach the village.
Can I compare Superior schools with Duluth schools on state ratings?
Not directly, and you should be skeptical of any site that does. Wisconsin and Minnesota run different accountability systems with different tests, cut scores, and report card formats. Compare things that are actually comparable: school size, grade configuration, program offerings, class options, and travel time. Superior High School enrolls 1,256, which sits between Denfeld at 951 and Duluth East at 1,495.
Where these facts come from
- NCES Common Core of Data, district and school directory 2024-2025, Superior School District (LEA 5514670) accessed 2026-08-14
- School District of Superior, district page listing the communities served accessed 2026-08-14
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, WISEdash public portal accessed 2026-08-14