Petaluma Junior High

Petaluma Junior High is a middle school of compact scale in Petaluma, California, run under Petaluma Joint Union High, works with 454 students in grades 7 through 8. By comparison, California's public schools average about 659 students each, so Petaluma Junior High sits 31% smaller than that benchmark.

Petaluma Joint Union High comprises 11 schools with combined enrollment of 4,900 students; Petaluma Junior High is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Petaluma Junior High records that the largest single group is White, at 56% of enrollment. Beyond that, the school reports 35% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 2% Asian.

Looking at school resources, Petaluma Junior High records 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 19.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. About 45% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Petaluma Junior High falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 52.9%; this one comes in at 37.1%, -15.8 points off the demographic line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Sonoma County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $104,674 per year, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 5%. Petaluma Junior High is one of 184 public schools in Sonoma County (combined enrollment of about 63,389 students).

Nearest neighbor: Valley Vista Elementary, around 0.3 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Petaluma Junior High comes 6th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 52.1%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 29%: 641 students in 2018 compared to 454 in 2025. The White share of enrollment contracted from 64% to 56% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 21.9:1 in 2018 to 19.1:1 today.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.