Summary:
ZIP code 93270 has three schools serving kindergarten through grade 8: Terra Bella Elementary (K–5), Carl Smith Middle (grades 6–8), and Saucelito Elementary (K–8), enrolling 792 students altogether. All three report high shares of students eligible for free/reduced lunch: 93% at Terra Bella, 93% at Carl Smith, and 79% at Saucelito in 2024–2025. The clearest overall concern is that none meets the state’s all-grades proficiency rate in ELA, math, or science: the schools’ average results are 12 percentage points below the state in ELA, 11 points below in math, and 16 points below in science.
Each school stands out in a different subject. In 2025–2026, Carl Smith leads ELA at 39%, just 1 point ahead of Terra Bella at 38%; Saucelito is lowest at 36%. Terra Bella leads math at 34%, 11 points above Carl Smith and 12 above Saucelito, which is lowest at 23%. Saucelito leads science at 31%, 16 points above Carl Smith and 17 above Terra Bella, the lowest at 15%. Grade-level results show some bright spots: Terra Bella’s third-grade ELA is 1 point above the state, and Saucelito’s third-grade math is 3 points above it.
Over the two years reported, the three-school average fell from 41% to 38% in ELA and from 25% to 20% in science, while math was nearly flat at 27%. Saucelito is a notable exception in science: its result rose 10 points, even as its ELA and math fell 8 and 5 points. Its reported chronic absenteeism is also lowest, at 1%, compared with 15% at Terra Bella and 20% at Carl Smith. SchoolDigger gives Terra Bella rank 3,648 of 5,804 (37th percentile, two stars) and Carl Smith rank 1,790 of 2,703 (34th percentile, two stars); no current ranking is supplied for Saucelito. Student-teacher ratios in 2024–2025 were 22.7 at Terra Bella, 20.1 at Carl Smith, and 13.8 at Saucelito. Because the schools serve different grade spans, their all-grades results are not a like-for-like comparison.
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