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CHRIS JULIN: Ray Toutloff grew up in Ely and moved away. He decided to come back when he saw the Ely schools were hiring a superintendent. He studied up for his job interview and noticed that the enrollment in Ely schools is shrinking. The district loses thousands of dollars in state aid for every lost student.

The Ely schools had 2,000 students in the 1960s. They have less than half that enrollment now. There are under 800, and the number is still dropping. Ray Toutloff guessed that his interviewers would ask him if he had any ideas to boost enrollment. They did ask, and he was ready.

RAY TOUTLOFF: Well, I said, outside of bringing in an industry that's going to create jobs and bring in families, maybe there's something we could do with the resources that we have available here. And perhaps we could develop a residential school with an environmental twist.

CHRIS JULIN: Ray Toutloff got the job in Ely. That was four years ago. And his idea for a live-in public high school is taking form. The school district is teaming up with the St. Paul YMCA. The Y runs Camp Widjiwagan and Camp du Nord outside of Ely. The high school students will live in a dorm at Camp du Nord and get a half hour bus ride into school. On weekends, they'll be at Camp Widjiwagan, or at least they'll start the weekends at the camp.

Karen Pick crunches through the snow to an outdoor kiosk that's covered with detailed maps. She runs the Environmental Education Program at Camp Widjiwagan.

KAREN PICK: The kids will come here, and they'll plan, well, how long do you think we can travel in a day? If we've got this many portages, if they're crossing a huge open bay, are they going to-- they need to plan for wind, things like that. So this will be one step of a weekend trip or a week-long trip.

CHRIS JULIN: Outdoor education is Camp Widjiwagan's claim to fame. The camp sends groups of kids all over North America to hike and canoe in the wilderness. The students at the Ely Wilderness High School will take their weekend trips into the Boundary Waters with camp staff. The students will hike and canoe and winter camp, and they'll gather data for scientific studies they work on in the classroom.

The students will spend their weekdays here at Ely High School. They'll be in the same classes as other junior year students. They can play sports or be in the band. They'll take a special class in the ecology of the Boundary Waters. Science teacher Todd Hohenstein will run that class. He says it'll cover everything from geology to botany to climatology. And students will do what he calls "authentic research."

TODD HOHENSTEIN: We want to really focus on the students coming up with questions that they have and then setting up a process to go and research and find the answers for those authentic questions. Nothing that would be a canned experiment, but rather, creating things of their interest.

CHRIS JULIN: Hohenstein says students will spend time in the woods with scientists, and they'll spend time with loggers. He says they'll get a balanced view of the North Woods. No students have registered for the program yet, but the school hopes to sign some up after a family weekend in April. Superintendent Ray Toutloff says local kids can sign up, but the program is aimed at city kids.

RAY TOUTLOFF: We're offering a variety of experiences that should attract a kid from a metropolitan area that can't have those kinds of experiences there.

CHRIS JULIN: Toutloff says the program could eventually become its own separate school, with as many as 100 students. The Ely program will compete for students with a new private environmental high school that's opening in Wisconsin. Ray Toutloff says Ely has at least one competitive advantage. The Wisconsin school costs $25,000 a year. The Ely program costs about half that. Both schools say they'll offer scholarships. In Ely, this is Chris Julin, Minnesota Public Radio.