La Colina Junior High

Set in Santa Barbara, California, La Colina Junior High is a medium-sized middle school, part of Santa Barbara Unified. It teaches 832 students across grades 7 through 8. That puts it 26% bigger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Santa Barbara Unified comprises 20 schools with combined enrollment of 12,247 students; La Colina Junior High is among them.

Demographically, La Colina Junior High shows that the largest single group is White at 49%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school reports 40% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 3% Asian. That composition is broadly in line with Santa Barbara County as a whole.

On the resource side, La Colina Junior High records 42 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 19.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. About 41% 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, Santa Barbara County runs at roughly 68%, so the school's eligibility rate is below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), La Colina Junior High tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 54.8% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 62.2%.

In the area at large, the surrounding county (Santa Barbara County) reports that median household earnings sit near $98,161, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Across Santa Barbara County's 129 public schools (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students), La Colina Junior High is one campus in the mix.

Hope Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), La Colina Junior High ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 62.2%.

The school occupies an urban site.

Over the past 7-year window. La Colina Junior High's enrollment has edged down 8% since 2018, when it stood at 901 (now 832). Class-load math has fell: from 23.3:1 in 2018 to 19.8:1 in 2025.

On this page, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.