Merlinda Elementary

As a mid-tier primary school in West Covina, California, Merlinda Elementary serves 460 students from grades K through 6, part of West Covina Unified.

West Covina Unified comprises 15 schools with combined enrollment of 7,703 students; Merlinda Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Merlinda Elementary shows that 72% of the student body identifies as Hispanic; the rest consists of 20% Asian, 3% Black, 3% White. The wider county runs roughly 48% Hispanic, putting the school's mix considerably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, The school employs 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 22.8:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 88% of students at Merlinda Elementary qualify 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 residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Merlinda Elementary ranks in the top 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 26.8%; Merlinda Elementary posts 42.1%, +15.3 points above that line.

Across the wider county, census data for Los Angeles County shows the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, about 36% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Los Angeles County runs 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), of which Merlinda Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Walnut Grove Intermediate, roughly 0.5 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Merlinda Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Merlinda Elementary at 3rd of 7; the average score across the group is 46.2%.

Merlinda Elementary operates from a suburban location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Merlinda Elementary has shrank 25%, going from 616 students in 2018 to 460 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment ticked down from 78% to 72% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 24.6:1 in 2018 to 22.8:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.