SAENZ EL

SAENZ EL is a medium-sized K-5 school in ALICE, Texas, operated by ALICE ISD. The school works with 471 students in grades pre-K through 5.

ALICE ISD runs 6 schools in total, collectively educating 4,297 students. SAENZ EL is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, SAENZ EL reports that 93% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 6% White. That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 80%.

On the income-and-resources front, SAENZ EL reports 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 20.8:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 15.1:1 average. About 94% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Jim Wells County's rate of about 83%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SAENZ EL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.6%, the actual is 41.2%, a residual of +8.6 points.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for Jim Wells County put the typical household earns roughly $51,896 per year, roughly 16% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 21%. In all, Jim Wells County runs 16 public schools (combined enrollment of about 7,302 students), of which SAENZ EL is one.

NOONAN EL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 5 other public schools cluster around SAENZ EL. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts SAENZ EL at 4th of 9; the average score across the group is 41.2%.

The school occupies a town-center site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 15%: 553 students in 2018 compared to 471 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 18.4:1 in 2018 to 20.8:1 today.

On allk12, members of the SAENZ EL community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.