Rio del Mar Elementary

Rio del Mar Elementary is a cozy K-5 school in Aptos, California, run under Pajaro Valley Unified. The school caters to 393 students in grades K through 6.

Rio del Mar Elementary is one of 33 schools operated by Pajaro Valley Unified, a district that enrolls 16,482 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Rio del Mar Elementary logs that 63% of the student body identifies as White. Other groups include 22% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 3% Asian. That composition is broadly in line with Santa Cruz County as a whole.

Looking at school resources, Rio del Mar Elementary shows 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 20.5:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 22% of students at Rio del Mar Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Santa Cruz County (around 52%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Rio del Mar Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 66.3% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 54.1%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Santa Cruz County put median household income runs about $111,093, about 44% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. In all, Santa Cruz County runs 83 public schools (combined enrollment of about 36,316 students), of which Rio del Mar Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Aptos Junior High, around 1.3 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Rio del Mar Elementary comes 2nd of 8 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 39.0%.

Rio del Mar Elementary operates from a suburban location.

Over the past 7-year window. Rio del Mar Elementary's enrollment has ticked down 34% since 2018, when it stood at 593 (now 393). Over the same period, the White share decreased from 76% to 63%. Class-load math has fell: from 24.7:1 in 2018 to 20.5:1 in 2025.

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