Starlight Elementary

Starlight Elementary operates as a small elementary school in Watsonville, California, part of Pajaro Valley Unified. Current enrollment sits at 383 students spanning grades K through 5.

Within Pajaro Valley Unified, which oversees 33 schools and 16,482 students, Starlight Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Starlight Elementary lists that 98% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. By comparison, Santa Cruz County as a whole is about 35% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Starlight Elementary reports 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 21.4:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 92% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Santa Cruz County (around 52%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Starlight Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 24.9%; this one delivers 21.2%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Santa Cruz County put median household earnings sit near $111,093, about 44% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Starlight Elementary is one of 83 public schools in Santa Cruz County (combined enrollment of about 36,316 students).

Nearest neighbor: Cesar E. Chavez Middle, around 0.2 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Starlight Elementary comes 2nd of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 17.2%.

Starlight Elementary operates from a high-density location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Starlight Elementary's enrollment has decreased 41% since 2018, when it stood at 646 (now 383). The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 24.9:1 in 2018 to 21.4:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.