Wagner Ranch Elementary

Located at 350 Camino Pablo, in Orinda, California, Wagner Ranch Elementary is a mid-tier elementary campus that teaches 489 students (grades K through 5), part of Orinda Union.

Orinda Union runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 2,590 students. Wagner Ranch Elementary is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Wagner Ranch Elementary logs that 42% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 30% Asian, 18% multiracial, 9% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Wagner Ranch Elementary has 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 22.2:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 2% of students at Wagner Ranch Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Contra Costa County (around 45%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Wagner Ranch Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 78.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 89.5%.

Across the wider county, census data for Contra Costa County shows median household earnings sit near $127,229, roughly 45% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. In all, Contra Costa County runs 280 public schools (combined enrollment of about 167,423 students), of which Wagner Ranch Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Sleepy Hollow Elementary, around 0.8 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Wagner Ranch Elementary. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Wagner Ranch Elementary ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 78.4%.

Geographically, the school is in an outlying area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 24%: 395 students in 2018 compared to 489 in 2025. The White share of enrollment declined from 63% to 42% over that span.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.