Margaret G. Scotten Elementary

Margaret G. Scotten Elementary operates as a tight-knit elementary school in Grass Valley, California, part of Grass Valley Elementary. Current enrollment sits at 357 students spanning grades K through 4. That puts it 23% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Within Grass Valley Elementary, which oversees 4 schools and 1,613 students, Margaret G. Scotten Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Margaret G. Scotten Elementary logs that 72% of the student body identifies as White. Other groups include 17% Hispanic, 6% multiracial. That is considerably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 84%.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Margaret G. Scotten Elementary has 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.3:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. An estimated 75% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is north of Nevada County's rate of about 43%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Margaret G. Scotten Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 34.9%; this one delivers 34.5%.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Nevada County indicate median household income runs about $89,882, roughly 42% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Margaret G. Scotten Elementary is one of 46 public schools in Nevada County (combined enrollment of about 13,561 students).

Lyman Gilmore Middle 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 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Margaret G. Scotten Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 43.4%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 25%: 477 students in 2018 compared to 357 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 22.7:1 in 2018 to 19.3:1 today.

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