Santiago Hills Elementary

Santiago Hills Elementary operates as a medium-sized K-5 school in Irvine, California, operated by Irvine Unified. Current enrollment sits at 548 students spanning grades K through 6.

Santiago Hills Elementary is one of 44 schools operated by Irvine Unified, a district that serves 37,948 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Santiago Hills Elementary reports that Asian students make up the majority at 67%. The remainder looks like 15% White, 10% multiracial, 7% Hispanic. By comparison, Orange County as a whole is about 22% Asian, so the school skews considerably more Asian than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 28.8:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 12% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is lower than Orange County's rate of about 55%.

With demographic context factored in, Santiago Hills Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 72.1%, the actual is 85.9%, a residual of +13.8 points.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (Orange County) logs that median household income runs about $116,289, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Orange County runs 649 public schools (combined enrollment of about 430,458 students), of which Santiago Hills Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Eastwood Elementary, roughly 0.5 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Santiago Hills Elementary at 1st of 8; the average score across the group is 73.3%.

Geographically, the school is in an urban area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Santiago Hills Elementary has ticked down 10%, going from 611 students in 2018 to 548 in 2025. Asian enrollment moved from 55% to 67% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 26.8:1 in 2018 to 28.8:1 today.

On allk12, members of the Santiago Hills Elementary community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.