La Mesa Dale Elementary

La Mesa Dale Elementary is a moderately sized primary school in La Mesa, California, one of the schools within La Mesa-Spring Valley. The school works with 460 students in grades K through 5.

Across the 22 schools in La Mesa-Spring Valley (10,491 students total), La Mesa Dale Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, La Mesa Dale Elementary lists that the most-represented group is Hispanic (50%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school lists 22% White, 11% Black, 11% multiracial, 5% Asian. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 35%.

On the resource side, The school reports having 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 26.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. An estimated 68% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is above San Diego County's rate of about 54%.

After controlling for student poverty, La Mesa Dale Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 38.8%; this one delivers 43.4%.

Around the school, census data for San Diego County shows median household income runs about $106,268, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, San Diego County runs 766 public schools (combined enrollment of about 467,437 students), of which La Mesa Dale Elementary is one.

La Mesa Arts Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. 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), La Mesa Dale Elementary ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 39.0%.

La Mesa Dale Elementary operates from a bedroom-community location.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count showed little movement: 466 students in 2018 compared to 460 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 43% to 50% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 29.1:1 in 2018 to 26.3:1 in 2025.

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