Ben Hulse Elementary

Ben Hulse Elementary is an elementary school of expansive scale in Imperial, California, operated by Imperial Unified, teacheing 838 students in grades K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 80% above typical.

Imperial Unified comprises 6 schools with combined enrollment of 4,794 students; Ben Hulse Elementary is among them.

On demographics, Ben Hulse Elementary records that nearly all students (91%) are Hispanic. The remainder is composed of 6% White.

On the resource side, On paper, Ben Hulse Elementary has 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 22.1:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 67% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Imperial County (around 77%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Ben Hulse Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 39.8%; this one delivers 50.9%.

In the area at large, census data for Imperial County shows median household earnings sit near $57,681, roughly 16% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 17%. In all, Imperial County runs 76 public schools (combined enrollment of about 36,513 students), of which Ben Hulse Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Imperial High, around 0.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Ben Hulse Elementary comes 1st of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 39.5%.

The school occupies a suburban site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 17%: 1,009 students in 2018 compared to 838 in 2025. The White share of enrollment declined from 12% to 6% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 24.3:1 in 2018 to 22.1:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Ben Hulse Elementary community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.