Original Research by School Decision on Larimore High School
Larimore High School sits at 300 Booth Ave in the small Grand Forks County community of Larimore, part of the Greater Grand Forks metro area. The school serves grades seven through twelve as a regular public school in the Larimore 44 district. Its enrollment is modest, with the largest concentration in the freshman class and progressively smaller upper grades, which gives the building a middle-and-high-school feel under one roof.
The town of Larimore is compact and primarily residential. Many residents commute to Grand Forks or Grand Forks Air Force Base for work, and the local economy centers on health care, agriculture, and small-scale manufacturing. The downtown along Main Street went through decades of commercial decline as the farm economy contracted and larger nearby cities drew shoppers away. Some abandoned buildings have been renovated or demolished and replaced, though vacant lots and deteriorating structures still dot the area. Recreational anchors nearby include Turtle River State Park, the Larimore Dam reservoir area with its beach and camping, and the Myra Arboretum. The Edna Ralston Public Library and a community museum housed in the historic former city hall round out civic life. Amtrak's Empire Builder passes through on BNSF tracks but does not stop; the nearest station is in Grand Forks.
Housing in the Larimore zip code is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the North Dakota median and roughly a third below the national figure, with recent year-over-year appreciation that outpaced the state's growth rate. A family earning around the national median household income would find the price-to-income ratio quite manageable here. Rent data was not available, so a family depending on the rental market would need to look further on their own.
State assessment results for the most recent school year show mixed performance. English language arts proficiency landed near the middle of the range, with roughly half of tested students meeting proficiency. Math was the weaker area, with about a quarter of students proficient, and science fell in between. The school has only a single year of reported data, so no trend is available to show whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining. A parent may want to ask the school how it is responding to the math results and what support structures are in place for students working below grade level.
The student body is predominantly white, with smaller American Indian, Hispanic, and two-or-more-races populations and a handful of Asian and Black students. About a fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a relatively low share compared with many public schools. Data on individualized education programs and English learner counts was not reported, so it is unclear from the available information how the school serves students with disabilities or those acquiring English. A family whose child needs either of those supports should ask the school directly about staffing and programming.
No data was available on course access, Advanced Placement or dual-credit offerings, career and technical education, staffing ratios, attendance, discipline, or graduation rates. For a school serving through grade twelve, the absence of a graduation rate and college-readiness or career-pathway information leaves a real gap. A parent considering Larimore for high school should ask about what advanced coursework, vocational tracks, and post-secondary planning the school offers, especially given the smaller senior class size.
The district brief turned up little of lasting impact regarding recent changes or strategic priorities. Nothing publicly reported pointed to major facility investments, program launches, or restructuring that would shape a family's decision right now.
Larimore High School offers a small, community-rooted setting where students are known and the surrounding town provides outdoor recreation and a quiet residential base within commuting distance of Grand Forks. The academic picture is uneven, with stronger reading results and weaker math, and key information on advanced coursework, special populations, and graduation outcomes is missing from what was available. Families drawn to a small-town environment with affordable housing and proximity to a larger metro may find it a reasonable fit, provided they ask the school direct questions about the gaps in the data.
See more original research from School Decision →