Kermit Mckenzie Intermediate, Guadalupe CA

Original Research by School Decision on Kermit Mckenzie Intermediate

Kermit McKenzie Intermediate is a public middle school serving grades four through eight in Guadalupe, a small agricultural city on the Santa Barbara County coast. The school recently underwent a significant transition: after more than a decade of overcrowding, the Guadalupe Union Elementary School District opened a brand-new junior high campus in August of last year and reorganized grade assignments across its schools. McKenzie now serves grades four through six only, as eighth graders moved to the new Guadalupe Junior High. The reconfiguration is part of a broader district expansion that also brought an early learning center online earlier this year, allowing the district to relieve pressure on existing buildings that had been operating near or beyond comfortable capacity.

McKenzie's student body is predominantly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged. About nine out of ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school serves a very small number of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The enrollment sits around six hundred students across its four grade levels. The school draws from a town with few job opportunities within its boundaries, so most working families commute to nearby Santa Maria; the local economy remains rooted in agriculture and related sectors.

State testing data shows proficiency rates that are consistently low across all measured subjects and grades. In English language arts, the school's overall proficiency stands in the low-to-mid range; eighth graders perform better than younger grades, but even that performance reflects that fewer than half of students meet state standards. Mathematics proficiency is notably lower, with school-wide performance in the low single digits to low teens across grades four through eight. Science testing shows similarly weak results. These patterns place McKenzie well below the midpoint relative to the county's school districts on measures of overall proficiency. A parent may want to look into further with the school what approaches are in place to address these results and what specific supports exist for students working below grade level.

The school also serves students within a context of substantial growth and infrastructure investment. The Pasadera Homes development at Guadalupe's southeast edge is adding hundreds of new homes to the city, marketed in part as affordable new housing for the California coast. New roads, parks, and schools are planned or underway to serve this expansion. The district's bond measures, approved by voters in 2022, funded the new junior high and early learning center now open, representing a major capital commitment to school infrastructure. This growth context means McKenzie's enrollment and facility use will likely continue to shift as new housing units are completed and families arrive in Guadalupe over the next several years.

The school's website and program details were not available in the data provided, so information about course breadth, extracurricular offerings, or specific academic interventions cannot be described here. State assessment data for social studies dates to 2012 and therefore does not reflect current performance. The school has no graduation rate because it serves only intermediate grades. Enrollment in special education and English learner programs was not reported, making it unclear what portion of the student body receives those services.

Families considering McKenzie should understand that this is a small, primarily Hispanic school in a town with limited economic diversity, serving students who face substantial economic hardship. Academic performance on state measures is low across subjects. The recent reconfiguration and new facilities represent the district's effort to address overcrowding and provide modern learning spaces, but the underlying academic challenges evident in test scores remain the school's defining feature from the data available.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolGuadalupe Union Elementary, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income21%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income47%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income28%Higher-income27%0 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income33%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income9%Higher-income14%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income9%Higher-income21%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income12%Higher-income27%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income13%Higher-income18%5 pp gap