# Waconia Public Schools *Public school district (ISD 110) in Carver and Hennepin counties, Minnesota.* Waconia Public Schools, Independent School District 110, is a public school district whose territory lies in Carver County and Hennepin County, [[Minnesota]]. Its Wikipedia entry puts enrollment at about 4,000 students. The district draws from [[Waconia]], Minnetrista, Victoria, St. Bonifacius and [[New Germany]], and it runs three K–5 elementary schools, a grades 6–8 middle school and a grades 9–12 high school.[^1] The district appears once in the project's record, in at-issue pair AI-Carver-087. That pair reports that a search found no OCR complaint, DOJ action or discrimination lawsuit against the district, against [[Watertown-Mayer]], or against [[Central Public Schools in Norwood Young America]]. On that result, three of Carver County's four school districts have no federal civil-rights record, and the fourth has a [[consent decree]].[^2] The record does not establish any federal filing, complaint or finding that names Waconia Public Schools.[^2] The district operates within a State whose own hiring framework is the subject of a federal suit. On Jan. 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] issued release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. In that release the United States' own term for the State's apparatus is "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime".[^3] The complaint in [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times.[^4] The pack does not connect the district to that case. ## Who Nancy Rajanen retired as superintendent effective June 30, 2014. Her successor, Patrick Devine, had been the middle-school principal in the Litchfield School District. Devine took office on July 1, 2014 and held the post until June 2022.[^1] Brian Gersich became superintendent on July 1, 2022. Before that he led the LeSueur-Henderson School District as superintendent, and earlier he was an assistant superintendent in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District.[^1] ## What The district's schools are: - Secondary: Waconia High School; Waconia Middle School - Primary: Bayview Elementary School; Laketown Elementary School; Southview Elementary School - Preschool: Early Childhood Center - Other: Waconia Learning Center[^1] Niche placed the district 19th among Minnesota's public school districts. Wikipedia gives a four-year graduation rate of 95 percent and a ratio of 17 students per teacher. It also reports that 65 percent of the district's teachers hold advanced degrees. The pack holds no state data against which to check these figures.[^1] ## When According to Wikipedia, enrollment rose roughly 5 percent annually between 2001 and 2011. In 2011, voters turned down an $8 million bond referendum by 2,676 votes to 1,050. The bond would have paid for land for a new elementary school and a new high school. As enrollment kept rising, preschool classes were relocated to a warehouse.[^1] Laketown Elementary, the district's third elementary school, opened in September 2016. Referendum questions passed in 2014, 2018 and 2020. They funded facility improvements and raised the district's general education revenue per pupil.[^1] The project's time table records that Governor Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency for COVID-19 under Executive Order 20-1 on March 13, 2020. The same row records that schools closed on March 15 and a stay-at-home order followed on March 25.[^5] ## Where The district serves Waconia, Minnetrista, Victoria, St. Bonifacius and New Germany, across Carver and Hennepin counties.[^1] The [[Carver County Historical Society]] records that New Germany was renamed [[Motordale]] in 1917 and took back its original name in 1922.[^6] ## How many - About 4,000 students. There are five K–12 schools, plus an early childhood center and a learning center.[^1] - In the 2011 bond referendum, 2,676 voters were against and 1,050 were for.[^1] - The at-issue pair's search found no OCR complaints, no DOJ actions and no discrimination lawsuits against the district.[^2] - The project searched two [[House Oversight]] documents for the names of all eleven Carver County cities: *[[The Cost of Doing Nothing]]* (Mar. 4, 2026) and the *MN Fraud Final Staff Report* (June 8, 2026). None of the names was found.[^7] ## In the at-issue record At-issue pair AI-Carver-087 has rank 87 and shock score 77. It sits in *Block E — The Consent Decree and What It Built* (pairs 75–88) of the project's Carver package. The pair rests on two record sources, isd110.org and nces.ed.gov. It states that no OCR complaint, DOJ action or discrimination lawsuit was found against Waconia Public Schools, Watertown-Mayer or Central Public Schools in Norwood Young America. It also states that the county's fourth district has a consent decree.[^2] The pair is anchored to the White House presidential action *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity* (2025).[^8] The pair's stated rationale is that the distribution itself is the finding: one district holds the whole county's federal record.[^2] The pack does not name the district under the consent decree. The project's Carver matrix also lists a Minnesota Department of Education organization record, #13185. That record is for the "Carver County Schools Network," based in Watertown and opened in 2025–2026. The matrix marks its type as unresolved and the record as not retrievable.[^9] For federal context, Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the suit against the State as a matter of general public importance.[^3] The complaint, *United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn.), was filed on Jan. 14, 2026 under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. It quotes subd. 3(c) of § 43A.191, which requires an agency to explain why it hired a non-affirmative candidate.[^4] The pack records no disposition of the case. The complaint follows [[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]], 605 U.S. 303 (2025). There the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs". The Court also set aside the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule for majority-group plaintiffs.[^10] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - ISD 110 is a public school district of Carver and Hennepin counties. From July 1, 2022 it has been led by Superintendent Brian Gersich.[^1] - The district is one of three Carver County districts that the at-issue pair's search found to have no federal civil-rights record.[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Waconia Public Schools* (revision 1276313698, retrieved 2026-10-27) — enrollment, service area, referenda, leadership, academics and school list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waconia_Public_Schools [^2]: Project record, *AT Issue Carver Claims Exposure Matrix* (2026-09-02), at-issue pair AI-Carver-087 — reports the negative federal civil-rights search for three Carver County districts and the fourth district's consent decree. The pair's search sources (isd110.org, nces.ed.gov) are not among the pack's citable URLs, so the URL given is the pair's anchor document. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/ [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — release title; Attorney General's certification of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) — Title VII basis; eight citations of Minn. Stat. § 43A.191, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^5]: Office of the Governor, *Executive Order 20-20* page (Apr. 8, 2020), as cited by project time-table row TL-0878 — March 2020 emergency sequence (EO 20-1 on March 13; school closure on March 15; stay-at-home order on March 25). https://mn.gov/governor/news/executiveorders/2020-04-08-eo-20-20/ [^6]: Carver County Historical Society, *New Germany* — renaming as Motordale in 1917 and reversion in 1922. https://www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org/new_germany.php [^7]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight, *MN Fraud Final Staff Report* (June 8, 2026), as searched in the project's Carver matrix together with *The Cost of Doing Nothing* (Mar. 4, 2026) — no Carver County city name found. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/MN-Fraud-Final-Staff-Report.pdf [^8]: The White House, *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity* (2025) — presidential action serving as the anchor of AI-Carver-087. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/ [^9]: Minnesota Department of Education, *Organization record #13185, Carver County Schools Network* — listed in the project's Carver matrix as opened 2025–2026, type unresolved, record not retrievable. https://pub.education.mn.gov/MdeOrgView/organization/show/13185 [^10]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — holding on majority-group plaintiffs under Title VII; rejection of the "background circumstances" rule. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf