Sierra Avenue Elementary

Located at 1050 Sierra Ave., in Oroville, California, Sierra Avenue Elementary is a compact elementary-level community that teaches 365 students (grades K through 5), part of Thermalito Union Elementary. Enrollment runs roughly 22% smaller than the state mean of about 465.

Sierra Avenue Elementary is one of 6 schools operated by Thermalito Union Elementary, a district that hosts 1,515 students overall.

Demographically, Sierra Avenue Elementary reports that the most-represented group is White (38%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school logs 23% Asian, 21% Hispanic, 13% multiracial, 2% Native American. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 70%.

On the resource side, The school employs 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 21.5:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 90% of students at Sierra Avenue Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is noticeably above Butte County's rate of about 63%.

After controlling for student poverty, Sierra Avenue Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 25.6%, the actual is 19.4%, a residual of -6.2 points.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Butte County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $67,928 per year, roughly 32% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Butte County runs 96 public schools (combined enrollment of about 29,730 students), of which Sierra Avenue Elementary is one.

Plumas Avenue Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Sierra Avenue Elementary. On composite proficiency, Sierra Avenue Elementary comes 4th of 5 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 24.0%.

Sierra Avenue Elementary operates from a town-center location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 20%: 456 students in 2018 compared to 365 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share decreased from 45% to 38%. Class-load math has fell: from 24.5:1 in 2018 to 21.5:1 in 2025.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.