La Cumbre Junior High

La Cumbre Junior High is a tight-knit junior high in Santa Barbara, California, operated by Santa Barbara Unified. The school serves 426 students in grades 7 through 8. That puts it 35% smaller 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 Cumbre Junior High is among them.

Demographically, La Cumbre Junior High shows that 90% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 8% White. The wider county runs roughly 48% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, La Cumbre Junior High lists 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.6:1. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 85% of enrolled students meet the income threshold 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 meaningfully above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), La Cumbre Junior High tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 29.1% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 29.4%.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Santa Barbara County indicate median household earnings sit near $98,161, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. La Cumbre Junior High is one of 129 public schools in Santa Barbara County (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students).

The closest other public school is Santa Barbara Community Academy, roughly 0.0 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, La Cumbre Junior High comes 6th of 7 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 42.9%.

La Cumbre Junior High operates from a downtown location.

Five-year trend. La Cumbre Junior High's enrollment has shrank 20% since 2018, when it stood at 535 (now 426). The Hispanic share of enrollment expanded from 86% to 90% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 22.3:1 in 2018 to 17.6:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the feed for La Cumbre Junior High typically covers sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.