Helen M. Wilcox Elementary

Helen M. Wilcox Elementary is one of the average-sized elementary campuss in Oroville, California, one of the schools within Palermo Union Elementary, with 592 students on its rolls from grades K through 3. Enrollment runs roughly 27% above the state mean of about 465.

Palermo Union Elementary runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 1,343 students. Helen M. Wilcox Elementary is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Helen M. Wilcox Elementary reports that the largest single group is Hispanic at 39%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school shows 37% White, 17% multiracial, 4% Asian, 2% Native American. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 20%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 20.4:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 86% of students at Helen M. Wilcox Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Butte County (around 63%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Helen M. Wilcox Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 28.5%, the actual is 36.3%, a residual of +7.8 points.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Butte County put median household income runs about $67,928, 32% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. In all, Butte County runs 96 public schools (combined enrollment of about 29,730 students), of which Helen M. Wilcox Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Golden Hills Elementary, roughly 0.2 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Helen M. Wilcox Elementary ranks 1st on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 24.0%.

Helen M. Wilcox Elementary operates from a town-center location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Helen M. Wilcox Elementary has rose 11%, going from 532 students in 2018 to 592 in 2025. The White share of enrollment ticked down from 48% to 37% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 18.8:1 in 2018 to 20.4:1 today.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.