There are currently about 600 students attending Mission Elementary School in grades K-5, plus two State Preschool Classes and a Special Education Preschool Class.  We have five second grade classes.  In our second grade class there are 20 students, 10 boys and 10 girls.  All of our students come to school in a car or walking.  We only have one bus coming to our school this year.  Our elementary school is one of 17 in the Oceanside Unified School District, which also has 4 middle schools, and 2 high schools, as well as 3 charter schools and 2 alternative high schools.

Oceanside is a city of about 175,000 people.  In the city there are mostly single family homes, as well as condominiums and apartments.  Most of the students in our class live in apartments.  Some of the other important buildings in our community include the Mission San Luis Rey (established in 1798), our City Hall and Public Library, Tri-City Hospital, and many shopping centers.  A new Wyndham timeshare resort has opened by our beach, and a large hotel complex, also by the beach, is due to be built during the next few years.  Oceanside also has a small municipal airport that is located within two miles of our school.  For commercial airline flights we can go either south to San Diego or north to Orange County. 

For recreation we have a beautiful city beach and a municipal fishing pier on the Pacific Ocean, as well as a city pool, and several parks scattered throughout the city.  There is also a paved trail for biking and running along the San Luis Rey River.  In San Diego County we also have the world famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, Sea World, and Legoland California (which is just a few miles south of us in Carlsbad).  To our north in Orange County are Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. 

Residents of Oceanside have many different jobs, including lawyers, teachers, police officers, firefighters, construction workers, service workers, and others who commute to jobs in Orange County and even Los Angeles.  Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base is our neighbor to the immediate north, and there are many Marines and Navy personnel who live in Oceanside.