Waterford Junior

Set in Waterford, California, Waterford Junior is an one-room-style junior high, run under Waterford Unified. It instructs 260 students across grades 7 through 8. That puts it 61% leaner than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Across the 5 schools in Waterford Unified (1,721 students total), Waterford Junior accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, Waterford Junior shows that Hispanic students make up the majority at 70%. Beyond that, the school lists 23% White, 4% multiracial, 2% Asian. By comparison, Stanislaus County as a whole is about 50% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.8:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 94% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Stanislaus County (around 71%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Waterford Junior ranks in the top 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 23.6%; Waterford Junior posts 40.2%, +16.7 points above that line.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Stanislaus County put median household income runs about $81,468, 20% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. In all, Stanislaus County runs 190 public schools (combined enrollment of about 106,477 students), of which Waterford Junior is one.

Nearest neighbor: Connecting Waters Charter, around 0.3 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Waterford Junior ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 38.9%.

Waterford Junior operates from a town-center location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Waterford Junior has remained close to its prior level, going from 260 students in 2018 to 260 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 21.0:1 in 2018 to 17.8:1 today.

On this page, members of the Waterford Junior community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.