Ballard Elementary

Set in Solvang, California, Ballard Elementary is a rural-scale elementary-level community, overseen by Ballard Elementary. It serves 113 students across grades K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 76% smaller than the state mean of about 465.

Ballard Elementary is a school of Ballard Elementary, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Ballard Elementary shows that the largest single group is White, at 79% of enrollment. Other groups include 12% Hispanic, 7% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 48% White, putting the school's mix noticeably more White than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 7 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. An estimated 11% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Santa Barbara County runs at roughly 68%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Ballard Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 73.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 75.9%.

Across the wider county, Santa Barbara County reports that the typical household earns roughly $98,161 per year, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Ballard Elementary is one of 129 public schools in Santa Barbara County (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students).

Los Olivos Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Ballard Elementary. On composite proficiency, Ballard Elementary comes 1st of 5 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 48.3%.

Ballard Elementary operates from a low-density location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Ballard Elementary's enrollment has ticked down 14% since 2018, when it stood at 131 (now 113). Over the same period, the Hispanic share declined from 17% to 12%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 18.7:1 in 2018 to 16.1:1 today.

On allk12, the feed for Ballard Elementary typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.