Manzanita Elementary

Set in Palmdale, California, Manzanita Elementary is a moderately sized elementary campus, one of the schools within Palmdale Elementary. It educates 644 students across grades K through 6. That puts it 38% bigger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Palmdale Elementary runs 29 schools in total, collectively educating 17,941 students. Manzanita Elementary is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Manzanita Elementary records that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (94%); the rest comes out to 4% Black. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 48%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Manzanita Elementary logs 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 23.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Manzanita Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 89% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is north of Los Angeles County's rate of about 70%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Manzanita Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 26.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 18.4%.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Los Angeles County indicate the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Los Angeles County's 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), Manzanita Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Palmdale Aerospace Academy, roughly 0.3 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Manzanita Elementary. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Manzanita Elementary ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 21.1%.

Manzanita Elementary operates from a residential location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 7%: 692 students in 2018 compared to 644 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share climbed from 80% to 94%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 25.5:1 in 2018 to 23.1:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Manzanita Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.