Jonata Middle

Set in Buellton, California, Jonata Middle is a very small middle-grades school, run under Buellton Union Elementary. It works with 168 students across grades 6 through 8. That puts it 75% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Across the 2 schools in Buellton Union Elementary (545 students total), Jonata Middle accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

In terms of who attends, Jonata Middle records that 54% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school shows 38% White, 7% multiracial.

On the resource side, Jonata Middle lists 8 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 20.0:1. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 55% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is lower than Santa Barbara County's rate of about 68%.

After controlling for student poverty, Jonata Middle performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 46.5%, the actual is 53.4%, a residual of +6.9 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Santa Barbara County put the typical household earns roughly $98,161 per year, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Jonata Middle is one of 129 public schools in Santa Barbara County (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students).

Oak Valley Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 3 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Jonata Middle comes 2nd of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 50.8%.

The school occupies a town-center site.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Jonata Middle has showed little movement, going from 168 students in 2018 to 168 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share contracted from 44% to 38%.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.