Costano Elementary

Costano Elementary is an elementary-level community of compact scale in East Palo Alto, California, overseen by Ravenswood City Elementary, works with 369 students in grades K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 21% smaller than typical.

Ravenswood City Elementary comprises 4 schools with combined enrollment of 1,445 students; Costano Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Costano Elementary lists that 73% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Beyond that, the school logs 12% Pacific Islander, 7% Black, 4% multiracial, 2% White. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 25%.

Looking at school resources, The school lists 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 17.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 90% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, San Mateo County runs at roughly 34%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Costano Elementary is in the bottom 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 25.9%; Costano Elementary posts 7.3%, -18.5 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, San Mateo County reports that median household earnings sit near $158,855, 54% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Costano Elementary is one of 176 public schools in San Mateo County (combined enrollment of about 82,403 students).

Nearest neighbor: Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle, around 0.5 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 4 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Costano Elementary ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 7.1%.

Costano Elementary operates from a residential location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Costano Elementary has edged down 13%, going from 425 students in 2018 to 369 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 68% to 73% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 19.3:1 in 2018 to 17.1:1 today.

On this page, members of the Costano Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.