Ruus Elementary

Ruus Elementary, an intimate elementary campus in Hayward, California, part of Hayward Unified, serves 361 students, covering grades K through 6. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so Ruus Elementary sits 22% smaller than that benchmark.

Hayward Unified runs 28 schools in total, collectively educating 17,273 students. Ruus Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Ruus Elementary shows that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 64% of enrollment; the rest looks like 20% Asian, 6% Pacific Islander, 4% Black, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Alameda County as a whole is about 23% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school lists 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 23.3:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Ruus Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 78% of students at Ruus Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Alameda County's rate of about 49%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Ruus Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 33.0%, the actual is 24.0%, a residual of -8.9 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Alameda County) reports that median household income runs about $129,367, 52% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Alameda County runs 394 public schools (combined enrollment of about 210,511 students), of which Ruus Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Palma Ceia Elementary, around 0.7 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Ruus Elementary. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Ruus Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 23.0%.

The campus sits in an outer-ring setting.

Five-year trend. Ruus Elementary's enrollment has declined 33% since 2018, when it stood at 536 (now 361). Class-load math has tightened: from 25.5:1 in 2018 to 23.3:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, 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.