Tomales Elementary

Tomales Elementary is a very small elementary-level community in Tomales, California, run under Shoreline Unified. The school caters to 160 students in grades K through 8. That puts it 66% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Tomales Elementary is one of 5 schools operated by Shoreline Unified, a district that works with 469 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Tomales Elementary shows that 64% of the student body identifies as Hispanic; the rest is composed of 36% White. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 20%.

On the resource side, The school employs 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 73% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Marin County runs at roughly 35%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Tomales Elementary falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 36.3%; this one comes in at 17.8%, -18.5 points off the demographic line.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Marin County put the typical household earns roughly $149,091 per year, 61% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Tomales Elementary is one of 75 public schools in Marin County (combined enrollment of about 29,867 students).

The closest other public school is Tomales High, roughly 0.4 miles away. 6 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. On composite proficiency, Tomales Elementary comes 6th of 6 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 52.8%.

Tomales Elementary operates from an outlying location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Tomales Elementary has changed only slightly, going from 162 students in 2018 to 160 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 14.9:1 in 2018 to 16.0:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Tomales Elementary community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.