Alta Vista Elementary

Alta Vista Elementary is an elementary campus of middle-of-the-pack scale in Los Gatos, California, operated by Union Elementary, instructing 584 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 26% larger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Union Elementary runs 8 schools in total, collectively educating 5,376 students. Alta Vista Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Alta Vista Elementary logs that 43% of students identify as Asian, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school shows 35% White, 11% Hispanic, 9% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Alta Vista Elementary has 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 26.0:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Alta Vista Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. Around 7% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is south of Santa Clara County's rate of about 37%.

After controlling for student poverty, Alta Vista Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 75.4%; this one delivers 76.9%.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Santa Clara County) shows that median household earnings sit near $164,281, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Santa Clara County runs 412 public schools (combined enrollment of about 230,059 students), of which Alta Vista Elementary is one.

Union Middle is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Alta Vista Elementary comes 5th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 73.0%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 11%: 655 students in 2018 compared to 584 in 2025. Over the same period, the Asian share ticked up from 26% to 43%. Class-load math has rose: from 24.3:1 in 2018 to 26.0:1 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Alta Vista Elementary community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.