Surprise Valley Elementary

As a micro-enrollment elementary school in Cedarville, California, Surprise Valley Elementary serves 51 students from grades K through 7, overseen by Surprise Valley Joint Unified. That puts it 89% leaner than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Within Surprise Valley Joint Unified, which oversees 2 schools and 89 students, Surprise Valley Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Surprise Valley Elementary records that the most-represented group is White (53%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest comes out to 24% Hispanic, 14% Native American, 10% multiracial. By comparison, Modoc County as a whole is about 79% White, so the school skews considerably less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 4 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 69% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Surprise Valley Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 39.3%, the actual is 35.0%, a residual of -4.3 points.

Around the school, Modoc County reports that median household income runs about $59,455, roughly 25% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Surprise Valley Elementary is one of 10 public schools in Modoc County (combined enrollment of about 855 students).

The closest other public school is Surprise Valley High, roughly 0.0 miles away. On composite proficiency, Surprise Valley Elementary comes 1st of 5 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 24.6%.

The school occupies a countryside site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 39%: 83 students in 2018 compared to 51 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment grew from 12% to 24% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 16.8:1 in 2018 to 12.1:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Surprise Valley Elementary community share and discuss school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.