El Puente High School

Salinas · Monterey County · Salinas Union High
Public Monterey County 🏛 Salinas Union High → ~214 seniors CDS 2766159…
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Most similar nearby schools

Monterey County Home Charter → Mount Toro High → Anzar High School → Learning For Life Charter Schl → Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter → Compare all similar →

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
339 (2018)243 (2026)
-28.3%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
204 (2018)113 (2026)
-44.6%

If this trend holds (-4.1%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~233 -10 $0
3 yr (2029) ~214 -29 $0
5 yr (2031) ~197 -46 $0

Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.

Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25

Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Monterey County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -44.6% vs. county +9.8% AND stability (54.5%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 63.5% (up -17.0 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-44.6%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+9.8%  Monterey County baseline
-54.4pp  gap vs. county
54.5%  retention (county median 89.2%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
54.5%
244 of 448 students

204 of 448 students who enrolled at El Puente High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (45.5% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Monterey County median
89.2% · school is in the 23rd percentile of 22 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 19th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (434) 55.3%
Socio. disadvantaged (432) 56.3%
English learners (105) 45.7%
Students w/ disabilities (49) 61.2%
White (22) 50.0%

Nearest peer high schools

Monterey County Home Charter 75.2% Mount Toro High 30.8% Anzar High School 94.2% Learning For Life Charter Schl 43.8% Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter 20.0%

Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.

Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25

Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.

Chronic absent
64.5%
267 of 414 students

Absenteeism is down 16.0 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.

Monterey County median
17.5% · school is worse than 91% of 22 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).

SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025

Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 104
35.6%
incl. 8.7% exceeded
-14.9 pts vs. Monterey County median (50.5%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 104
1.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-16.4 pts vs. Monterey County median (17.4%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.

Student composition — 2025-26

HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.

Race / ethnicity

Hispanic / Latino 91% -2.2
White 6% +1.5
Two or more 2% +1.2
Black / African Am. 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 93% -1.4
English learners 9% -16.8

Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.

District financial profile — Salinas Union High (FY2020)

From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.

Total revenue
$295.4M
+39.0% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$17,989
16,423 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 70.6%
Local: 18.9%
Federal: 10.6%
Instruction share
57.9%
of current spending · $8,127/pupil
Long-term debt
$143.0M
+26.0% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Salinas Union High as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).

University of California outcomes · Class of 2024
UC Reach
N/A
UC Application Reach
N/A
None applications
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / None applications
UC Yield Rate
N/A
None enrolled of None admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach
N/A
None enrollees / 214 seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Student-Counselor Ratio
128:1
1.9 FTE counselors · 243 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 210 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
0%
2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · -55.9 pp vs. median · Monterey Co. 48.4%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
214
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
349
All grades · CDE Census Day

El Puente High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · Salinas · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 45% (204→113 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of +2%.
  • At its recent rate (-4.1%/yr), enrollment projects to ~214 by 2029 — about 29 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

243 students (2026)
~214 projected (2029)
at -4.1%/yr

That's about 29 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.

Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
El Puente High School Public 243 -45%
Peer-group median 9.2% +2%
Monterey County Home Charter Public 260 -32%
Mount Toro High Public 197 +9%
Anzar High School Public 260 4.5% -41%
Learning For Life Charter Schl Public 146 -21%
Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter Public 235 +390%
Dr. Tj Owens Gilroy Early College Academy Public 308 +22%
Central Coast High School Public 98 +40%
Ceiba College Preparatory Academy Public 494 -26%
Pacific Grove High School Public 539 39.8% -5%
Marina High Public 777 9.2% +43%

UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →

Campus Breakdown — 2024

Campus Applicants Admits Enrollees Admit Rate UC Reach Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite
UC San Diego → Selective
UC Irvine → Selective
UC Davis →
⚠ Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once. Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Compare with other schools → See Monterey County rankings →

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