Old Adobe Elementary Charter

Located at 2856 Adobe Rd., in Petaluma, California, Old Adobe Elementary Charter is a small elementary campus that caters to 278 students (grades K through 6), overseen by Old Adobe Union. That puts it 40% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Across the 5 schools in Old Adobe Union (1,734 students total), Old Adobe Elementary Charter accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Old Adobe Elementary Charter logs that the largest single group is White, at 69% of enrollment; the rest comes out to 24% Hispanic, 6% multiracial.

On the resource side, On paper, Old Adobe Elementary Charter has 11 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 25.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 35% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Sonoma County (around 51%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Old Adobe Elementary Charter performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 58.9%, the actual is 50.2%, a residual of -8.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Sonoma County indicate median household income runs about $104,674, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. In all, Sonoma County runs 184 public schools (combined enrollment of about 63,389 students), of which Old Adobe Elementary Charter is one.

The closest other public school is La Tercera Elementary, roughly 1.2 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), Old Adobe Elementary Charter ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 36.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a countryside area. As a public charter, Old Adobe Elementary Charter runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 20%: 348 students in 2018 compared to 278 in 2025. Class-load math has pulled in: from 26.8:1 in 2018 to 25.3:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Old Adobe Elementary Charter community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.