Pacific Union Elementary

Pacific Union Elementary is one of the mid-tier K-5 schools in Arcata, California, one of the schools within Pacific Union Elementary, with 534 students on its rolls from grades K through 8.

Pacific Union Elementary is one of 3 schools operated by Pacific Union Elementary, a district that educates 896 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Pacific Union Elementary logs that the most-represented group is White (49%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school records 27% Hispanic, 13% multiracial, 7% Native American, 2% Black. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 72%.

On the resource side, The school employs 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 18.5:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Pacific Union Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. An estimated 55% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Pacific Union Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 46.8%, the actual is 43.5%, a residual of -3.4 points.

In the broader community, census data for Humboldt County shows the typical household earns roughly $61,160 per year, about 33% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. Across Humboldt County's 92 public schools (combined enrollment of about 17,319 students), Pacific Union Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Trillium Charter, around 0.5 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

Geographically, the school is in a town-based area.

Over the past 7-year window. Pacific Union Elementary's enrollment has changed only slightly since 2018, when it stood at 542 (now 534). White enrollment moved from 57% to 49% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 21.3:1 in 2018 to 18.5:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.