Henderson Elementary

Henderson Elementary operates as a reasonably sized elementary campus in Barstow, California, one of the schools within Barstow Unified. Current enrollment sits at 398 students spanning grades K through 5.

Barstow Unified runs 13 schools in total, collectively educating 6,118 students. Henderson Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Henderson Elementary shows that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 55% of enrollment. Other groups include 20% Black, 16% White, 6% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with San Bernardino County as a whole.

On the income-and-resources front, Henderson Elementary logs 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 23.6:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 79% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, Henderson Elementary falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 33.5%; this one comes in at 18.5%, -15.0 points off the demographic line.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for San Bernardino County put the typical household earns roughly $85,478 per year, roughly 23% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, San Bernardino County runs 583 public schools (combined enrollment of about 393,648 students), of which Henderson Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Barstow Fine Arts Academy, roughly 0.2 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Henderson Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Henderson Elementary at 4th of 6; the average score across the group is 18.3%.

The school occupies a small-town site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 43%: 696 students in 2018 compared to 398 in 2025. Class-load math has narrowed: from 29.0:1 in 2018 to 23.6:1 in 2025.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.