Schools in East Hillside, Duluth, Minnesota
Part of the East Hillside neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
East Hillside has the strongest elementary claim of any neighborhood in Duluth's central corridor, and a genuinely unresolved answer above that.
Myers-Wilkins Elementary is inside the neighborhood at 1027 North 8th Avenue East, enrolling about 329 students from prekindergarten through grade 5 (NCES Common Core of Data 2024-2025, accessed 2026-08-14). It is walkable from much of the area along the cross-slope streets. Attendance boundaries can still change, so confirm with the district, but the building is here, which is more than Central Hillside or downtown can say.
The middle and high school assignment is the open question and this guide is not going to guess at it. The central-corridor boundary runs through the Hillside. Ordean East Middle School at 2900 East 4th Street, about 1,037 students, sits east along the cross-slope route; Lincoln Park Middle School at 3215 West 3rd Street, about 606 students, sits west. For high school, Duluth East at 301 North 40th Avenue East enrolls about 1,495 and Denfeld at 401 North 44th Avenue West about 951. Addresses in this corridor have been assigned differently in different years. Contact ISD 709 with the specific address or use the district's school locator before you count on any of them.
The district's alternative learning center is downtown at 11 East Superior Street with about 35 students in grades 6 to 12, plus online and independent-study programs at the same address. Those are application programs across the district, not a neighborhood school.
Private options sit outside the neighborhood: Marshall School at 1215 Rice Lake Road about eight minutes up the hill, and Stella Maris Academy's Holy Rosary campus at 2802 East 4th Street about eight minutes east. Private schools are not covered by Minnesota Department of Education report card data, so this guide does not rate them alongside the public schools. Both the University of Minnesota Duluth and the College of St. Scholastica are within a couple of miles, which shapes the rental market here considerably.
The neighborhood school, at 1027 North 8th Avenue East inside East Hillside, enrolling about 329 students from prekindergarten through grade 5. Walkable for much of the neighborhood, and the main reason a family would choose this side of the Hillside over the central one.
The east-side middle school at 2900 East 4th Street, about seven minutes east along the cross-slope route.
The west-side middle school at 3215 West 3rd Street, listed because the central-corridor boundary is close enough that assignment must be checked per address.
The east-side high school at 301 North 40th Avenue East.
The west-side high school at 401 North 44th Avenue West, listed because the corridor boundary must be checked per address.
The district's alternative learning center at 11 East Superior Street downtown. An application program, not an attendance-area school.
Independent non-sectarian college-prep school at 1215 Rice Lake Road, about eight minutes up the hill.
Duluth's consolidated Catholic academy, with its Holy Rosary campus at 2802 East 4th Street about eight minutes east.
Higher education nearby: University of Minnesota Duluth, College of St. Scholastica, Lake Superior College.
Schools next door
West across Sixth or Seventh Avenue East, the other half of the Hillside: denser, cheaper, closer to downtown and the hospitals, and noisier.
Chester ParkEast across Chester Creek, the university-side hillside neighborhood with a much higher owner-occupancy share and higher prices.
East End / EndionBelow and east along the lake, historic housing with lake views at meaningfully higher prices.
Downtown DuluthAbout a mile downhill southwest, with the transit hub, the library, the theaters and most of the region's restaurants.
Congdon ParkEast along the hill, the city's benchmark historic neighborhood, at roughly three times the price.