J. W. Oakley Elementary

J. W. Oakley Elementary is a K-5 school of reasonably sized scale in Brawley, California, part of Brawley Elementary, serveing 654 students in grades K through 5. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so J. W. Oakley Elementary sits 41% bigger than that benchmark.

Brawley Elementary runs 6 schools in total, collectively educating 3,883 students. J. W. Oakley Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, J. W. Oakley Elementary shows that 96% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. The wider county runs roughly 86% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, J. W. Oakley Elementary has 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 86% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Imperial County (around 77%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, J. W. Oakley Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 28.2%; this one delivers 24.4%.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Imperial County put the typical household earns roughly $57,681 per year, roughly 16% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 17% of residents live below the federal poverty line. J. W. Oakley Elementary is one of 76 public schools in Imperial County (combined enrollment of about 36,513 students).

The closest other public school is Brawley Union High, roughly 0.9 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts J. W. Oakley Elementary at 6th of 6; the average score across the group is 32.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-center area.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 19%: 810 students in 2018 compared to 654 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 23.8:1 in 2018 to 19.8:1 today.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.