Margaret Hedrick Elementary

Margaret Hedrick Elementary operates as a moderately sized elementary campus in El Centro, California, overseen by El Centro Elementary. Current enrollment sits at 446 students spanning grades K through 6.

Across the 12 schools in El Centro Elementary (5,157 students total), Margaret Hedrick Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Margaret Hedrick Elementary reports that 96% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 86%.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 22.3:1. The state averages about 22.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 78% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Margaret Hedrick Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.7%, the actual is 23.4%, a residual of -9.4 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Imperial County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $57,681 per year, about 16% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 17%. Across Imperial County's 76 public schools (combined enrollment of about 36,513 students), Margaret Hedrick Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Ballington Academy for the Arts and Sciences, roughly 0.3 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Margaret Hedrick Elementary ranks 7th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 36.2%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 19%: 553 students in 2018 compared to 446 in 2025. Class-load math has tightened: from 30.7:1 in 2018 to 22.3:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.