Virginia Avenue Elementary

Virginia Avenue Elementary, a middle-of-the-pack elementary school in Bakersfield, California, overseen by Fairfax Elementary, serves 644 students, covering grades K through 6. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 38% above typical.

Within Fairfax Elementary, which oversees 4 schools and 2,667 students, Virginia Avenue Elementary is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Virginia Avenue Elementary records that 94% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 3% Black. By comparison, Kern County as a whole is about 57% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 30 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 21.8:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 22.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 100% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is north of Kern County's rate of about 76%.

After controlling for student poverty, Virginia Avenue Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 20.1%; this one delivers 17.6%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Kern County indicate median household earnings sit near $70,210, about 19% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 15%. In all, Kern County runs 279 public schools (combined enrollment of about 197,431 students), of which Virginia Avenue Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Sierra Middle, roughly 0.7 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Virginia Avenue Elementary comes 6th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 20.9%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Looking at the recent track record. Virginia Avenue Elementary's enrollment has fell 7% since 2018, when it stood at 696 (now 644). Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 88% to 94%.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.