Joe Baca

Joe Baca operates as a middle-of-the-pack junior high in Bloomington, California, part of Colton Joint Unified. Current enrollment sits at 705 students spanning grades 7 through 8.

Colton Joint Unified comprises 27 schools with combined enrollment of 18,397 students; Joe Baca is among them.

Demographically, Joe Baca reports that 91% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority; the rest reads as 5% Black, 3% White. By comparison, San Bernardino County as a whole is about 55% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school employs 39 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 18.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. About 92% 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 San Bernardino County (around 74%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Joe Baca sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 24.8%; this one delivers 18.4%.

In the area at large, census data for San Bernardino County shows median household income runs about $85,478, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. Joe Baca is one of 583 public schools in San Bernardino County (combined enrollment of about 393,648 students).

The closest other public school is Ruth Grimes Elementary, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Joe Baca ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 39.1%.

Joe Baca operates from a suburban location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 19%: 867 students in 2018 compared to 705 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 22.1:1 in 2018 to 18.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.