James A. Whitaker Elementary

As a reasonably sized primary school in Buena Park, California, James A. Whitaker Elementary instructs 559 students from grades K through 5, run under Buena Park Elementary. Enrollment runs roughly 20% bigger than the state mean of about 465.

Buena Park Elementary comprises 7 schools with combined enrollment of 3,675 students; James A. Whitaker Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, James A. Whitaker Elementary shows that 81% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority; the rest is composed of 8% Asian, 5% White, 3% Black, 3% multiracial. By comparison, Orange County as a whole is about 34% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 20.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 92% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Orange County runs at roughly 55%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, James A. Whitaker Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 24.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 26.0%.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Orange County indicate median household income runs about $116,289, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Orange County's 649 public schools (combined enrollment of about 430,458 students), James A. Whitaker Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Buena Park High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around James A. Whitaker Elementary. On composite proficiency, James A. Whitaker Elementary comes 7th of 9 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 37.1%.

The campus sits in a suburban setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count expanded 5%: 531 students in 2018 compared to 559 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 25.3:1 in 2018 to 20.7:1 today.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.