ORTIZ EL

Set in ABILENE, Texas, ORTIZ EL is a reasonably sized elementary school, one of the schools within ABILENE ISD. It instructs 523 students across grades pre-K through 5.

Within ABILENE ISD, which oversees 26 schools and 14,536 students, ORTIZ EL is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, ORTIZ EL lists that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 78% of enrollment; the rest consists of 12% Black, 7% White, 3% multiracial. By comparison, Taylor County as a whole is about 25% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, ORTIZ EL has 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.7:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 91% 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 Taylor County (around 53%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, ORTIZ EL is in the bottom 10% of Texas public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 34.1%; ORTIZ EL posts 17.9%, -16.2 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Taylor County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $67,139 per year, about 29% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Taylor County runs 54 public schools (combined enrollment of about 24,159 students), of which ORTIZ EL is one.

Nearest neighbor: MANN MIDDLE, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, ORTIZ EL comes 7th of 7 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 34.6%.

The campus sits in an inner-city setting.

Over the past 7-year window. ORTIZ EL's enrollment has decreased 13% since 2018, when it stood at 604 (now 523). The Hispanic share of enrollment climbed from 69% to 78% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 13.4:1 in 2018 to 14.7:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for ORTIZ EL typically covers school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.