SLVUSD Charter

SLVUSD Charter, a close-knit combined-grade school in Ben Lomond, California, run under San Lorenzo Valley Unified, teaches 301 students, covering grades K through 12. By comparison, California's public schools average about 602 students each, so SLVUSD Charter sits 50% below that benchmark.

San Lorenzo Valley Unified comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 2,228 students; SLVUSD Charter is among them.

In terms of who attends, SLVUSD Charter records that 75% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder reads as 12% multiracial, 11% Hispanic. By comparison, Santa Cruz County as a whole is about 60% White, so the school skews considerably more White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school currently runs with 12 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 25.7:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 18.6:1 average. About 21% 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 south of Santa Cruz County's rate of about 52%.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, SLVUSD Charter sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 67.2%; actual is 49.0%, a gap of -18.3 points.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Santa Cruz County indicate median household earnings sit near $111,093, roughly 44% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Santa Cruz County runs 83 public schools (combined enrollment of about 36,316 students), of which SLVUSD Charter is one.

San Lorenzo Valley Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around SLVUSD Charter. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), SLVUSD Charter ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 55.0%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site. SLVUSD Charter is a charter school, which puts it inside the public-school system but outside the standard district-managed model.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count increased 14%: 265 students in 2018 compared to 301 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 6% to 11% across the same window. Class-load math has grew: from 23.9:1 in 2018 to 25.7:1 in 2025.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.