Ponderosa Elementary School

Set in AURORA, Colorado, Ponderosa Elementary School is a big elementary campus, overseen by Cherry Creek School District No. 5 in the county of Arapah. It educates 634 students across grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 67% above the typical public school in Colorado, which averages around 379 students.

Cherry Creek School District No. 5 in the county of Arapah runs 70 schools in total, collectively educating 52,099 students. Ponderosa Elementary School is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Ponderosa Elementary School logs that the most-represented group is Hispanic (44%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest breaks down as 22% Black, 15% White, 10% multiracial, 8% Asian. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 16.6:1 average. An estimated 71% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Arapahoe County runs at roughly 50%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, Ponderosa Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 23.4% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 18.2%.

In the broader community, Arapahoe County reports that the typical household earns roughly $101,087 per year, about 47% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Ponderosa Elementary School is one of 176 public schools in Arapahoe County (combined enrollment of about 115,502 students).

Nearest neighbor: Village East Community Elementary School, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Ponderosa Elementary School at 3rd of 9; the average score across the group is 24.3%.

Ponderosa Elementary School operates from an urban location.

Five-year trend. Ponderosa Elementary School's enrollment has contracted 8% since 2018, when it stood at 689 (now 634). Hispanic enrollment moved from 31% to 44% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 15.0:1 in 2018 to 18.1:1 today.

On allk12, recent activity here tends to focus on enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.