Cathedral City Elementary

Cathedral City Elementary is an elementary-level community of mid-sized scale in Cathedral City, California, overseen by Palm Springs Unified, enrolling 606 students in grades K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 30% above the state mean of about 465.

Within Palm Springs Unified, which oversees 27 schools and 20,007 students, Cathedral City Elementary is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Cathedral City Elementary records that nearly all students (93%) are Hispanic. Beyond that, the school logs 3% White. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 51%.

On the resource side, The school employs 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 18.6:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 97% of students at Cathedral City Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Riverside County's rate of about 74%.

After controlling for student poverty, Cathedral City Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 22.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 21.7%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Riverside County) reports that median household earnings sit near $93,074, roughly 26% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Riverside County's 543 public schools (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students), Cathedral City Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Nellie N. Coffman Middle, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Cathedral City Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 33.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 13%: 697 students in 2018 compared to 606 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 22.5:1 in 2018 to 18.6:1 in 2025.

On allk12, members of the Cathedral City Elementary community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.