Ponderosa High

Ponderosa High operates as a big secondary school in Shingle Springs, California, run under El Dorado Union High. Current enrollment sits at 1,675 students spanning grades 9 through 12. By comparison, California's public schools average about 838 students each, so Ponderosa High sits 100% above that benchmark.

Across the 6 schools in El Dorado Union High (6,410 students total), Ponderosa High accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Ponderosa High reports that 68% of the student body identifies as White. Other groups include 20% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 4% multiracial. That is meaningfully less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 78%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 73 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 23.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 18.2:1 average. About 18% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against El Dorado County (around 32%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Ponderosa High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 68.9%, the actual is 60.4%, a residual of -8.5 points.

Around the school, census data for El Dorado County shows the typical household earns roughly $108,845 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. In all, El Dorado County runs 69 public schools (combined enrollment of about 34,706 students), of which Ponderosa High is one.

Buckeye Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.5 miles from this campus. 7 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Ponderosa High comes 2nd of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 53.4%.

Ponderosa High operates from a suburban location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Ponderosa High has fell 8%, going from 1,827 students in 2018 to 1,675 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 74% to 68% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 24.9:1 in 2018 to 23.1:1 today.

On allk12, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.