SUNSET ELEMENTARY

SUNSET ELEMENTARY is one of the sizable elementary schools in CARLSBAD, New Mexico, one of the schools within CARLSBAD, with 438 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. By comparison, New Mexico's public schools average about 287 students each, so SUNSET ELEMENTARY sits 53% larger than that benchmark.

CARLSBAD comprises 13 schools with combined enrollment of 7,217 students; SUNSET ELEMENTARY is among them.

In terms of who attends, SUNSET ELEMENTARY reports that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 72% of enrollment. Other groups include 25% White. By comparison, Eddy County as a whole is about 52% Hispanic, so the school skews noticeably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, SUNSET ELEMENTARY has 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 17.0:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 12.9:1 average. Roughly 28% of students at SUNSET ELEMENTARY qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is below Eddy County's rate of about 46%.

With demographic context factored in, SUNSET ELEMENTARY is in the bottom 10% of New Mexico public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 50.6%; SUNSET ELEMENTARY posts 34.3%, -16.3 points below that line.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Eddy County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $78,426 per year, roughly 19% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. Across Eddy County's 26 public schools (combined enrollment of about 11,661 students), SUNSET ELEMENTARY is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is CARLSBAD INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL - PR LEYVA CAMPUS, roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), SUNSET ELEMENTARY ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 35.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count rose 11%: 396 students in 2018 compared to 438 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 51% to 72% across the same window. Class-load math has fell: from 18.7:1 in 2018 to 17.0:1 in 2025.

On this page, the feed for SUNSET ELEMENTARY typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.