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Manhattan Beach, California - 7 schools
An equity score of 32/100 ranks Manhattan Beach Unified #1197 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,366 per pupil, Manhattan Beach Unified ranks #659 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
5,895
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$16,366
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Manhattan Beach Unified operates 7 public schools serving 5,895 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle 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 Los Angeles County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,366 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 74.7% local, 19.8% state, and 5.6% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 32/100, ranked #1197 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (23 AP courses district-wide), a 273.1:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 9.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 56.7% White, 14.0% Hispanic or Latino, 13.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Aurelia Pennekamp Elementary, with a diversity index of 70.6/100.
Its largest campus is Mira Costa High, enrolling 2,473 students (42% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Opal Robinson Elementary, at 303 students, a 8x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Mira Costa High accounts for 42.0% of all Manhattan Beach Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Manhattan Beach Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Manhattan Beach Unified school enrollment varies 8.2× across entities
Manhattan Beach Unified school enrollment ranges from 303 students (lowest) to 2,473 students (highest), a spread of 2,170 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Manhattan Beach Unified student-counselor ratio is 273:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Variation between sub-units within Manhattan Beach Unified is typically wider than the Manhattan Beach Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Manhattan Beach Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 9.4% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.