Forest Grove Elementary

Forest Grove Elementary is an intimate K-5 school in Pacific Grove, California, one of the schools within Pacific Grove Unified. The school caters to 324 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 30% below the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Pacific Grove Unified runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 1,749 students. Forest Grove Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Forest Grove Elementary records that the most-represented group is White (49%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 27% Hispanic, 16% multiracial, 5% Asian. By comparison, Monterey County as a whole is about 36% White, so the school skews meaningfully more White than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.8:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Forest Grove Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. Around 22% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Monterey County (around 76%), the school's rate is south of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Forest Grove Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 66.3% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 60.3%.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Monterey County shows the typical household earns roughly $97,230 per year, about 28% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Forest Grove Elementary is one of 153 public schools in Monterey County (combined enrollment of about 73,845 students).

Pacific Grove High 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. On composite proficiency, Forest Grove Elementary comes 4th of 6 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 59.9%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 30%: 464 students in 2018 compared to 324 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share shrank from 59% to 49%. Class-load math has pulled in: from 20.6:1 in 2018 to 16.8:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.