Downtown Elementary

Downtown Elementary is one of the low-enrollment elementary campuss in Bakersfield, California, overseen by Bakersfield City, with 317 students on its rolls from grades K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 32% smaller than the state mean of about 465.

Bakersfield City runs 44 schools in total, collectively educating 28,365 students. Downtown Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Downtown Elementary reports that 56% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. The remainder looks like 34% White, 3% Asian, 3% Black, 3% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with Kern County as a whole.

On the resource side, Downtown Elementary lists 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 21.6:1. The state averages about 22.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 31% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Kern County runs at roughly 76%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Downtown Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 60.9%; this one delivers 57.5%.

In the surrounding community, census data for Kern County shows the typical household earns roughly $70,210 per year, 19% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 15%. In all, Kern County runs 279 public schools (combined enrollment of about 197,431 students), of which Downtown Elementary is one.

Kern County Special Education is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Downtown Elementary at 1st of 4; the average score across the group is 30.7%.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Downtown Elementary has expanded 3%, going from 307 students in 2018 to 317 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 44% to 56%.

On this page, members of the Downtown Elementary community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.