University Park Elementary

Located at 833 West Acacia St., in Salinas, California, University Park Elementary is an average-sized K-5 school that educates 488 students (grades K through 6), one of the schools within Salinas City Elementary.

Salinas City Elementary runs 15 schools in total, collectively educating 8,236 students. University Park Elementary is one of those campuses.

On demographics, University Park Elementary logs that nearly all students (86%) are Hispanic. Other groups include 4% White, 3% multiracial, 3% Black, 2% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 62% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, The school employs 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 21.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 70% of students at University Park Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, University Park Elementary falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 38.4%; this one comes in at 23.6%, -14.7 points off the demographic line.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Monterey County indicate the typical household earns roughly $97,230 per year, 28% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. University Park Elementary is one of 153 public schools in Monterey County (combined enrollment of about 73,845 students).

The closest other public school is Mission Park Elementary, roughly 0.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), University Park Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 32.8%.

University Park Elementary operates from a city-core location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at University Park Elementary has declined 7%, going from 522 students in 2018 to 488 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for University Park Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.