Octavia E. Butler Magnet

Octavia E. Butler Magnet, a cozy middle-grades school in Pasadena, California, one of the schools within Pasadena Unified, works with 481 students, covering grades 6 through 8. That puts it 27% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Pasadena Unified runs 23 schools in total, collectively educating 13,639 students. Octavia E. Butler Magnet is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Octavia E. Butler Magnet reports that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 73% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 10% White, 9% Black, 4% multiracial, 3% Asian. By comparison, Los Angeles County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. Around 70% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Octavia E. Butler Magnet sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 37.6%; actual is 20.7%, a gap of -16.9 points.

Zooming out to the county, Los Angeles County reports that median household earnings sit near $90,112, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Los Angeles County's 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), Octavia E. Butler Magnet is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Washington Elementary STEM Magnet, roughly 0.1 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Octavia E. Butler Magnet ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 33.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a city-core area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Octavia E. Butler Magnet has stayed largely flat, going from 490 students in 2018 to 481 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share declined from 83% to 73%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 23.3:1 in 2018 to 18.4:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.