El Carmelo Elementary

El Carmelo Elementary is one of the tight-knit elementary schools in Palo Alto, California, run under Palo Alto Unified, with 282 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. That puts it 39% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Within Palo Alto Unified, which oversees 20 schools and 10,187 students, El Carmelo Elementary is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, El Carmelo Elementary lists that 36% of students identify as Asian, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest looks like 25% Hispanic, 23% White, 13% multiracial, 3% Black.

On the resource side, El Carmelo Elementary records 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 19.3:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 18% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Santa Clara County (around 37%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, El Carmelo Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 68.5%; this one delivers 68.5%.

In the surrounding community, census data for Santa Clara County shows median household income runs about $164,281, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. El Carmelo Elementary is one of 412 public schools in Santa Clara County (combined enrollment of about 230,059 students).

Fairmeadow Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, El Carmelo Elementary comes 8th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 80.6%.

El Carmelo Elementary operates from an urban location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 25%: 377 students in 2018 compared to 282 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 15% to 25% across the same window.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.