San Benito Elementary

Located at 4300 San Benito Rd., in Atascadero, California, San Benito Elementary is a middle-of-the-pack elementary campus that instructs 403 students (grades K through 5), part of Atascadero Unified.

Atascadero Unified runs 12 schools in total, collectively educating 4,355 students. San Benito Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, San Benito Elementary records that 60% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder consists of 30% Hispanic, 9% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 69% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully less White than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, On paper, San Benito Elementary has 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 27.3:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 57% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, San Benito Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 45.8%, the actual is 42.1%, a residual of -3.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (San Luis Obispo County) records that the typical household earns roughly $97,446 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, San Luis Obispo County runs 83 public schools (combined enrollment of about 33,339 students), of which San Benito Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Monterey Road Elementary, around 1.2 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around San Benito Elementary. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), San Benito Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 48.7%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at San Benito Elementary has decreased 16%, going from 477 students in 2018 to 403 in 2025. The White share of enrollment ticked down from 69% to 60% over that span.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.