Kunst (Tommie) Junior High

Kunst (Tommie) Junior High is one of the reasonably sized 6-8 campuss in Santa Maria, California, operated by Santa Maria-Bonita, with 912 students on its rolls from grades 7 through 8. That puts it 38% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Kunst (Tommie) Junior High is one of 21 schools operated by Santa Maria-Bonita, a district that enrolls 17,408 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Kunst (Tommie) Junior High logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (93%). The remainder is composed of 3% Asian, 3% White. By comparison, Santa Barbara County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Kunst (Tommie) Junior High shows 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 18.1:1. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 88% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Santa Barbara County (around 68%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Kunst (Tommie) Junior High tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 27.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 25.8%.

Around the school, census data for Santa Barbara County shows the typical household earns roughly $98,161 per year, 37% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Kunst (Tommie) Junior High is one of 129 public schools in Santa Barbara County (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students).

Nearest neighbor: Ontiveros (Juan Pacifico) Elementary, around 0.6 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Kunst (Tommie) Junior High ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 20.6%.

Kunst (Tommie) Junior High operates from a city-core location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Kunst (Tommie) Junior High has declined 20%, going from 1,133 students in 2018 to 912 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 21.1:1 in 2018 to 18.1:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Kunst (Tommie) Junior High community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.