VADO ELEMENTARY

As a mid-sized elementary campus in VADO, New Mexico, VADO ELEMENTARY educates 415 students from grades pre-K through 6, operated by GADSDEN. By comparison, New Mexico's public schools average about 287 students each, so VADO ELEMENTARY sits 45% bigger than that benchmark.

Across the 26 schools in GADSDEN (11,739 students total), VADO ELEMENTARY accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, VADO ELEMENTARY logs that 99% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. By comparison, Doñan Ana County as a whole is about 68% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, VADO ELEMENTARY has 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.6:1. The state averages about 12.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 100% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

After controlling for student poverty, VADO ELEMENTARY performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 33.4%, the actual is 21.4%, a residual of -12.0 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Doñan Ana County put the typical household earns roughly $56,848 per year, about 32% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 19% of residents live below the federal poverty line. VADO ELEMENTARY is one of 81 public schools in Doñan Ana County (combined enrollment of about 36,561 students).

The closest other public school is LA MESA ON TRACK PREK CENTER, roughly 2.7 miles away. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, VADO ELEMENTARY comes 5th of 5 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 34.9%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Over the past 7-year window. VADO ELEMENTARY's enrollment has contracted 6% since 2018, when it stood at 443 (now 415). Class-load math has fell: from 13.9:1 in 2018 to 12.6:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, members of the VADO ELEMENTARY community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.