Walnut Grove Elementary

Walnut Grove Elementary is a well-populated elementary school in Patterson, California, one of the schools within Patterson Joint Unified. The school instructs 744 students in grades K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 60% bigger than the state mean of about 465.

Patterson Joint Unified comprises 11 schools with combined enrollment of 6,064 students; Walnut Grove Elementary is among them.

On demographics, Walnut Grove Elementary lists that 85% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority; the rest reads as 5% White, 4% Asian, 3% Black, 3% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 50% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, The school currently runs with 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 22.8:1. The state averages about 22.3:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 81% of students at Walnut Grove Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Stanislaus County (around 71%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Walnut Grove Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 31.0%; this one delivers 21.6%.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Stanislaus County indicate median household earnings sit near $81,468, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, Stanislaus County runs 190 public schools (combined enrollment of about 106,477 students), of which Walnut Grove Elementary is one.

West Valley Learning Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Walnut Grove Elementary. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Walnut Grove Elementary ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 30.0%.

The school occupies a small-town site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Walnut Grove Elementary has declined 11%, going from 833 students in 2018 to 744 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 23.8:1 in 2018 to 22.8:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Walnut Grove Elementary typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.