Horton Elementary

Horton Elementary operates as a close-knit elementary-level community in San Diego, California, part of San Diego Unified. Current enrollment sits at 386 students spanning grades K through 5.

Within San Diego Unified, which oversees 174 schools and 94,828 students, Horton Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Horton Elementary records that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (84%). The remainder looks like 8% Black, 5% Asian. By comparison, San Diego County as a whole is about 35% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, Horton Elementary has 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 25.7:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Horton Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. About 97% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, San Diego County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Horton Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 21.8%, the actual is 14.4%, a residual of -7.4 points.

Zooming out to the county, San Diego County reports that median household income runs about $106,268, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Horton Elementary is one of 766 public schools in San Diego County (combined enrollment of about 467,437 students).

KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Horton Elementary. On composite proficiency, Horton Elementary comes 5th of 5 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 21.0%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Horton Elementary has decreased 12%, going from 440 students in 2018 to 386 in 2025. Class-load math has tightened: from 27.5:1 in 2018 to 25.7:1 in 2025.

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