Bernhard Marks Elementary

As a middle-of-the-pack elementary campus in Dos Palos, California, Bernhard Marks Elementary works with 478 students from grades 3 through 5, run under Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified.

Across the 5 schools in Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified (2,254 students total), Bernhard Marks Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Bernhard Marks Elementary shows that nearly all students (83%) are Hispanic. Beyond that, the school shows 12% White, 3% Black. By comparison, Merced County as a whole is about 63% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Bernhard Marks Elementary lists 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 25.2:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Roughly 87% of students at Bernhard Marks Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

After controlling for student poverty, Bernhard Marks Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 27.4%, the actual is 20.8%, a residual of -6.6 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Merced County indicate the typical household earns roughly $65,510 per year, about 15% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 16% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Merced County's 117 public schools (combined enrollment of about 59,456 students), Bernhard Marks Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Dos Palos Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 4 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Bernhard Marks Elementary comes 5th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 33.3%.

The school occupies a town-center site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Bernhard Marks Elementary has decreased 10%, going from 532 students in 2018 to 478 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 26.6:1 in 2018 to 25.2:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.