Marian Bergeson Elementary

Marian Bergeson Elementary is one of the mid-tier primary schools in Laguna Niguel, California, run under Capistrano Unified, with 423 students on its rolls from grades K through 5.

Capistrano Unified comprises 58 schools with combined enrollment of 40,251 students; Marian Bergeson Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, Marian Bergeson Elementary logs that the largest single group is Asian at 34%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder looks like 29% multiracial, 20% White, 16% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Asian, putting the school's mix noticeably more Asian than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Marian Bergeson Elementary has 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 23.5:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Roughly 30% of students at Marian Bergeson Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is noticeably below Orange County's rate of about 55%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Marian Bergeson Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 61.8%, the actual is 69.5%, a residual of +7.8 points.

Across the wider county, census data for Orange County shows median household income runs about $116,289, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Orange County runs 649 public schools (combined enrollment of about 430,458 students), of which Marian Bergeson Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Niguel Hills Middle, around 0.8 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Marian Bergeson Elementary. On composite proficiency, Marian Bergeson Elementary comes 2nd of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 58.9%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Marian Bergeson Elementary's enrollment has declined 37% since 2018, when it stood at 676 (now 423). Over the same period, the White share shrank from 40% to 20%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 26.0:1 in 2018 to 23.5:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.