PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY

Located at 450 SOUTHERN BLVD SE, in RIO RANCHO, New Mexico, PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY is a substantial primary school that teaches 539 students (grades K through 5), run under RIO RANCHO. That puts it 88% above the typical public school in New Mexico, which averages around 287 students.

RIO RANCHO comprises 20 schools with combined enrollment of 16,461 students; PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY shows that Hispanic students make up the majority at 70%. The remainder looks like 20% White, 6% multiracial, 3% Native American. By comparison, Sandoval County as a whole is about 40% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY has 29 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 18.3:1. The state averages around 12.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 100% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 33.5%, the actual is 27.2%, a residual of -6.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Sandoval County shows median household income runs about $86,636, 34% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Sandoval County runs 49 public schools (combined enrollment of about 22,445 students), of which PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY is one.

JOE HARRIS ELEMENTARY is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.3 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY comes 6th of 6 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 38.9%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting.

Five-year trend. PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY's enrollment has shrank 29% since 2018, when it stood at 757 (now 539). Over the same period, the White share contracted from 27% to 20%. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 13.8:1 in 2018 to 18.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.