Merlinda Elementary was opened in January of 1962 after two years of planning and building the campus. At that time it housed Kindergarten through 6th grade students who had attended other schools in the district. In the 44 years of its existence Merlinda has had 9 principals and the attendance has grown from a little over 400 students to an attendance of close to 600.

Merlinda has always had a history of school pride and success. We truly believe that all children can learn and we wanted to ensure that history and philosophy of success by adopting the "Success For All" reading program in 1999. Since then, we went from 16% of our students reading at or above grade level to last year’s high in June of 79% at or above their grade level in reading. This program and the dedication of our teachers have enabled us to raise our API scores over the last six years by over 181 points!

Merlinda was renovated in 2001 in just six months.  Much of the work was to the infrastructure of the school such as technology, plumbing, lighting and electricity.  Thanks to the hard work of all of our site and district staff, we were able to return to our home in a little over 6 months.

In 2004 Merlinda was named a California Distinguished and Title I Achieving School.  We were extremely honored to receive these two prestigious awards; they are a credit to the hard work and dedication of all of our staff.

We welcome anyone to visit our school and see, first hand, the exemplary teaching at Merlinda where we truly believe in SUCCESS FOR ALL!!