Lange (Dorothea) Elementary

Lange (Dorothea) Elementary, a middle-of-the-pack primary school in Nipomo, California, overseen by Lucia Mar Unified, works with 577 students, covering grades K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 24% above the state mean of about 465.

Across the 19 schools in Lucia Mar Unified (9,590 students total), Lange (Dorothea) Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, Lange (Dorothea) Elementary logs that 59% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Other groups include 36% White, 4% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 25%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 22.4:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 22.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 67% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against San Luis Obispo County (around 54%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Lange (Dorothea) Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 39.4%; this one delivers 35.6%.

Around the school, the surrounding county (San Luis Obispo County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $97,446 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Lange (Dorothea) Elementary is one of 83 public schools in San Luis Obispo County (combined enrollment of about 33,339 students).

The closest other public school is Dana Elementary, roughly 1.3 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Lange (Dorothea) Elementary comes 3rd of 9 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 32.1%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Lange (Dorothea) Elementary has showed little movement, going from 563 students in 2018 to 577 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 41% to 36% across the same window. Class-load math has fell: from 25.5:1 in 2018 to 22.4:1 in 2025.

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