Olive Elementary

Olive Elementary is a compact elementary-level community in Novato, California, operated by Novato Unified. The school educates 364 students in grades K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 22% below typical.

Olive Elementary is one of 14 schools operated by Novato Unified, a district that hosts 7,199 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Olive Elementary logs that the most-represented group is Hispanic (42%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder looks like 40% White, 12% multiracial, 3% Black, 3% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 20% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Olive Elementary records 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 21.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. An estimated 49% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Marin County (around 35%), the school's rate is north of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Olive Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 50.0%, the actual is 50.3%, a residual of +0.2 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Marin County put the typical household earns roughly $149,091 per year, roughly 61% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Olive Elementary is one of 75 public schools in Marin County (combined enrollment of about 29,867 students).

Nearest neighbor: Rancho Elementary, around 1.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Olive Elementary ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 45.3%.

The school occupies a suburban site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 17%: 312 students in 2018 compared to 364 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 44% to 40% across the same window.

On allk12, members of the Olive Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.