Ferndale Elementary

Ferndale Elementary is an intimate elementary school in Ferndale, California, part of Ferndale Unified. The school educates 338 students in grades K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 27% smaller than the state mean of about 465.

Ferndale Unified comprises 2 schools with combined enrollment of 483 students; Ferndale Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, Ferndale Elementary reports that White students make up the majority at 73%. Other groups include 19% Hispanic, 4% Native American, 4% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with Humboldt County as a whole.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 19.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 46% of students at Ferndale Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is lower than Humboldt County's rate of about 60%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Ferndale Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 52.2%; this one delivers 51.9%.

In the broader community, census data for Humboldt County shows median household income runs about $61,160, 33% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. Across Humboldt County's 92 public schools (combined enrollment of about 17,319 students), Ferndale Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Ferndale High, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Ferndale Elementary ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 26.1%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Ferndale Elementary has remained close to its prior level, going from 333 students in 2018 to 338 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 22.2:1 in 2018 to 19.4:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.