Community/School District Demographics
Student/Staff Demographics:
The School District of Menomonie is dedicated to the success and achievement of all students. The board structure, administrative team structure, and the district-wide student achievement council facilitate district wide planning. The school district has a nine-member board of education elected at large. The administrative structure includes a district administrator, director of teaching and learning, business manger, director of pupil services, eight building principals, two associate principals, and one dean of students. The district student achievement team is comprised of fourteen teachers, representing all programs and buildings, three building principals, and two district-level administrators. The district’s mission statement states: “The School District of the Menomonie Area, by embracing the unique needs and using the strengths of our diverse community, is
dedicated to preparing ALL students to become lifelong learners, caring individuals, and responsible citizens.” District-wide planning provides a comprehensive direction to maximize resources in meeting the district mission. Support services are coordinated through response to intervention planning and support services coordinated at the district level.The district’s equalized value in 2009 was $1,651,638,574. The Menomonie Area School District has 3322 students enrolled. Five K-5 elementary schools provide a comprehensive curriculum based upon the developmental needs of the population they serve. All K-5 buildings use the Responsive Classroom approach and have established professional learning communities. The population per building is as follows: Downsville Elementary School – 94; Oaklawn Elementary School – 408; Knapp Elementary School – 122; River Heights Elementary School – 386; Wakanda Elementary School – 303. The district operates a community-based 4K program. There are ten community partners and a total 4K enrollment of 236 students.
Menomonie Middle School has 710 students and offers a broad curricular experience within a middle school philosophy. Menomonie Senior High School has 1021 students. The 9-12 high school offers academic programming including advanced placement, an online virtual program, broad offerings in career and technical education (including Project Lead The Way, and many state skill standards and internship opportunities. The district also offers students an alternative high school setting at Lucas Charter School.
Socio-Economic, ELL, and Minority Populations:
The demographics of the population are as follows: Asian – 7.6%; Black – 2.1%; Hispanic – 1.4%, American Indian 0.6%; White – 88.2%. The district has .06% with limited English proficiency. There are presently 39.92% of our students eligible for free/reduced lunch.
Staff Demographics:
The district employees 436 people: 250 teachers, 15 administrators, and 171 classified staff. The staff is approximately 75% female and 25% male. The district has 3 staff members that are National Board Certified.
Community Demographics:
The School District of Menomonie is located in the city of Menomonie, the County of Dunn, and within 45 minutes from the St.Paul/Minneapolis metropolitan area. There are 41,975 residents in Dunn County. Regionally, it is located within the west central Wisconsin area. West Central Wisconsin includes Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, and St Croix County. Typically, the graduates of the School District of Menomonie also consider the St. Paul-Minneapolis area of Minnesota an area of
employment, entertainment, and recreation opportunities. Located in the center of Dunn County in Western Wisconsin, Menomonie has a population of approximately
15,000 and is the home of the University of Wisconsin-Stout (enrollment ~ 10,000) along with a satellite campus from Chippewa Valley Technical College. The city surrounds Lake Menomin with connections to the Red Cedar River Valley. Eau Claire is 25 miles to the East and Hudson/Minneapolis/St. Paul is 60-80 miles to the West.
Menomonie is recognized for its high quality of life with a wide variety of outdoor activities, music and theatre, and has key industries such as TNT Logistics, Cardinal Glass, Ford Distribution Center, Wal-Mart Distribution Center, and Phillips Plastics. The Stout Technology Park complements the many small and medium sized businesses found in the downtown and surrounding areas. With two golf courses, parks, and other amenities, Menomonie is a thriving, growing community with progressive thinkers and leaders.
Fifty-one percent of the population is male while forty-nine percent of the population is female. The minority population comprises 3.92% of the total population. In Dunn County, in 2005, about 71 percent of the population 16 years and over participated in the labor force (either working or looking for work). That’s slightly higher than the statewide labor force participation rate of 70 percent, but still places Dunn as relatively average among the 72 counties in the state. The unemployed make up about three percent of the total working age population (34,437), but this is a different number than the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percentage of the labor force (24,088), and in Dunn County, the 2008 unemployment rate was 5.5% percent. The median income in Dunn County is $35,498.
The average annual wage in Dunn County in 2008 was $30,732, which was 81% of the average wage in Wisconsin of $39,336. Dunn County's largest industry, by both payroll and employment, is education and health; the average wage in this industry is $30,906. The impact of this large sector on the local average likely accounts for the disparity between Dunn County and the state. The opportunity in both sectors allow for self-sufficiency. In addition to area school districts, there is a high concentration of post-secondary institutions in the region. UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire are within the heart of the west central area. Additionally Luther Hospital, Sacred Heart Hospital, Marshfield Clinic, and Midelfort Clinic Ltd/Red Cedar Clinic Mayo Health System are among the largest employers in the region. The region covers over 4.5 million acres, roughly 13 percent of the land surface in the state. Over 2.9 million acres are in farms and another 76,500 acres are under water. Four counties border Minnesota and two of them,
Pierce and St. Croix, are part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The top employers in the in the Menomonie Area include 3M Company, Wal-Mart/Wal-Mart Distribution Center, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie Public Schools and Red Cedar/Midelfort/Mayo System. The top industries in the area are educational services, food services and drinking places, nursing and residential care facilities, warehousing and storage and general merchandise stores. In 2007, Dunn County averaged about 1,000 jobs more throughout the year than the 5-year trend indicates as a positive indicator of job growth in the county. Most industry sectors with available data showed growth from 2000 to 2005, with most of that growth attributable to education and healthcare, and information, professional & business services. Total employment in the agriculture sector was also 1000+ at 1,492. The most prominent public and private sector employers in Dunn
County are:
Walmart Associates Inc 1000+
University of Wisconsin-Stout 1000+
Aurora Residential Alternatives 500-999
Menomonie Public Schools 500-999
3M Company 500-999
County of Dunn 500-999
Andersen Corporation 250-499
Conagra Foods 250-499
Red Cedar Medical Center 250-499
Phillips Plastics 250-499
Educational services (including both public and private institutions) are by far the largest industry of employment in Dunn County. This is not really surprising, given that Dunn County is home to the Universityof Wisconsin-Stout, the second largest employer in the county. This sector also includes the four school districts serving their areas of the county. Though the education sector only grew by six jobs since last year, it has added 119 since 2000. While it would appear from the data that nursing & residential care facilities is the second largest industry sector, which is not the case. The employer listed as the third largest, Aurora Residential Alternatives, operates homes for the elderly throughout the state and when they submit the data used in these tables they don’t allocate employment to the sites where the work is performed, but instead list it at their administrative offices in Dunn County. So numbers associated with this industry sector and employer are misleading, and would actually be much lower just for this county but significant for the region. The real second largest industry sector is warehousing & storage. Menomonie’s location along the I-94 corridor between Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago makes it a good place for a distribution center, and Wal-Mart apparently thought so too. Wal-Mart is the single largest employer in the county, and while some of those employees work at the store in Menomonie the majority work at Wal-Mart’s distribution center nearby, and heavily influence employment in this industry. Employment in food services & drinking places is high in Dunn County, as it is in most other counties. Though the industry averages 1,250 employees, you won’t find any of these businesses on the top ten employers list. Employment is spread amongst 67 establishments, with more than any other industry on the prominent industries list in fact. Jobs in the food services and drinking places industry tend to be seasonal and low paying, with many part-time workers. These factors account for the industry having the lowest average annual wage. General merchandise stores, most notably Wal-Mart, Farm & Fleet and K-Mart, employed an average of 748 area residents in 2008. No discussion of Dunn County’s industry profile would be complete without mentioning manufacturing. No other industry group has greater representation on the prominent industry list than manufacturing. In fact, three of the ten spots on the prominent industries list are part of the manufacturing sector. So it should come as no surprise that four of the ten largest employers in Dunn County are manufacturers, led by specialized paper manufacturer 3M. Food, paper, and wood products manufacturing are all important to the area’s economy. Industry employment is really only half the story, however. For example, even though manufacturing jobs are thought of as similar occupations, there can be a lot of variety in duties and skills. No occupation in the top five list is shared between all three manufacturing sectors, though some are common to more than one sector, like warehouse-type stock movers. While many of these occupations use skills easily transferred between industries, others are very specialized. Occupations like registered nurse or carpenter make up a large portion of the workforce in certain industries, but their specialized skill-sets limit the sectors that employ them. Wages in specialized occupations, however, tend to be higher than pay in broader occupations. Dunn County is a mix of rural and urban communities with engaged citizens, strong and diverse leadership, and with a participatory community decision-making process. We are an open and welcoming community that celebrates diversity and creativity. We invite a culture of collaborative thinking, and our communities work together for our shared future. We have a strong focus on sustainable development and renewable energy businesses, and have created energy efficient commuter systems and recreation trails. We retain and protect our rural landscape and natural environment. We are renowned for our good health care, education, and workforce development systems. As part of the county visioning process there are strategic directions that embrace higher wages, recruitment of higher-wage industries, less recruitment of low-wage industries, renewed emphasis on cultural arts, environmental practices, technology and education. The strategic directions renew a commitment to workforce and economic development for all citizens.