Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary

Located at 3200 Parsons Ave., in Merced, California, Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary is a well-populated elementary campus that works with 722 students (grades K through 6), part of Merced City Elementary. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary sits 55% larger than that benchmark.

Across the 19 schools in Merced City Elementary (11,108 students total), Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary records that Hispanic students make up the majority at 60%. The remainder reads as 19% White, 9% Asian, 6% multiracial, 5% Black. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary has 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 24.9:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 60% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is noticeably below Merced County's rate of about 81%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.0%, the actual is 37.1%, a residual of -6.9 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Merced County put the typical household earns roughly $65,510 per year, 15% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 16%. In all, Merced County runs 117 public schools (combined enrollment of about 59,456 students), of which Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Allan Peterson Elementary, roughly 0.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary comes 3rd of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 32.0%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Donn B. Chenoweth Elementary has shrank 5%, going from 763 students in 2018 to 722 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share decreased from 29% to 19%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 27.1:1 in 2018 to 24.9:1 today.

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