Thelma Bedell Elementary

Thelma Bedell Elementary, a close-knit elementary campus in Santa Paula, California, one of the schools within Santa Paula Unified, enrolls 294 students, covering grades K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 37% leaner than the state mean of about 465.

Santa Paula Unified runs 10 schools in total, collectively educating 4,570 students. Thelma Bedell Elementary is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Thelma Bedell Elementary logs that 89% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Beyond that, the school shows 8% White. The wider county runs roughly 44% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.4:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Thelma Bedell Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. An estimated 67% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

After controlling for student poverty, Thelma Bedell Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 39.6% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 26.7%.

Around the school, Ventura County reports that the typical household earns roughly $109,797 per year, about 36% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Ventura County runs 238 public schools (combined enrollment of about 147,841 students), of which Thelma Bedell Elementary is one.

Mupu Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.0 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Thelma Bedell Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Thelma Bedell Elementary at 6th of 8; the average score across the group is 30.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Thelma Bedell Elementary's enrollment has increased 3% since 2018, when it stood at 286 (now 294).

On the community side, the feed for Thelma Bedell Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.