Patterson Road Elementary

As a middle-of-the-pack elementary-level community in Santa Maria, California, Patterson Road Elementary teaches 662 students from grades K through 6, run under Orcutt Union Elementary. That puts it 42% larger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Patterson Road Elementary is one of 10 schools operated by Orcutt Union Elementary, a district that caters to 4,911 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Patterson Road Elementary records that 57% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. The remainder looks like 28% White, 12% multiracial. By comparison, Santa Barbara County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Patterson Road Elementary reports 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 26.8:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 61% of students at Patterson Road Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Patterson Road Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 43.2%; this one delivers 42.1%.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Santa Barbara County) records that median household income runs about $98,161, roughly 37% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. In all, Santa Barbara County runs 129 public schools (combined enrollment of about 66,191 students), of which Patterson Road Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Delta High, around 0.2 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Patterson Road Elementary. On composite proficiency, Patterson Road Elementary comes 3rd of 5 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 44.9%.

Patterson Road Elementary operates from a bedroom-community location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count showed little movement: 650 students in 2018 compared to 662 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 40% to 28% over that span.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.