At $27,629 per pupil, Manchester Union Elementary ranks #126 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
35
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$27,629
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Manchester Union Elementary operates 1 public schools serving 35 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Mendocino County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $27,629 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 188 of 1880 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 65.3% local, 22.3% state, and 12.4% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
and 20.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 52.9% Hispanic or Latino, 35.3% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Manchester Elementary, enrolling 34 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 22.9% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (35 to 27 students), and the student-teacher ratio tightened by 2.6 students per teacher as staffing held steadier than enrollment, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $967,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 45.4% went to instruction, 50.3% to support services, and 0% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Manchester Elementary accounts for 97.1% of all Manchester Union Elementary student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Manchester Union Elementary a distant remainder — means Manchester Union Elementary-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Manchester Union Elementary chronic absenteeism rate is 20.6% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Manchester Union Elementary is typically wider than the Manchester Union Elementary-aggregate figure suggests.