Howard Pence Elementary

Howard Pence Elementary is an elementary-level community of mid-sized scale in San Diego, California, operated by South Bay Union, teacheing 419 students in grades K through 6.

Within South Bay Union, which oversees 12 schools and 5,513 students, Howard Pence Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Howard Pence Elementary reports that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (90%). Beyond that, the school reports 4% Asian, 3% White, 2% multiracial. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 35%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 24.6:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Howard Pence Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 72% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, San Diego County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Howard Pence Elementary is in the bottom 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 36.7%; Howard Pence Elementary posts 18.2%, -18.5 points below that line.

Across the wider county, census data for San Diego County shows median household income runs about $106,268, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across San Diego County's 766 public schools (combined enrollment of about 467,437 students), Howard Pence Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Montgomery Middle is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Howard Pence Elementary comes 8th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 29.3%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Howard Pence Elementary's enrollment has decreased 40% since 2018, when it stood at 696 (now 419).

Inside the community feed, members of the Howard Pence Elementary community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.