Agua Caliente Elementary

Agua Caliente Elementary is a primary school of medium-sized scale in Cathedral City, California, part of Palm Springs Unified, hosting 645 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 39% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Across the 27 schools in Palm Springs Unified (20,007 students total), Agua Caliente Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Agua Caliente Elementary reports that 94% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 2% White. The wider county runs roughly 51% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Agua Caliente Elementary has 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 20.3:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Agua Caliente Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 93% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Riverside County (around 74%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Agua Caliente Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 23.9%; this one delivers 23.9%.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Riverside County put median household income runs about $93,074, roughly 26% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. In all, Riverside County runs 543 public schools (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students), of which Agua Caliente Elementary is one.

Mt. San Jacinto High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Agua Caliente Elementary comes 7th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 38.0%.

The school occupies a suburban site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged up 23%: 526 students in 2018 compared to 645 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 23.9:1 in 2018 to 20.3:1 today.

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