Tucked away above a canyon and next to a park in the northwestern section of Rancho de Los Peñasquitos, Adobe Bluffs Elementary School (ABES) is a wonderful model of a neighborhood school and the pride and joy of the community. From the first moment after entering the bright red doors of this meticulously maintained campus; one immediately senses the caring, collaborative atmosphere that has become its trademark. Building on a strong tradition of volunteerism and business support, a culture has been firmly established by the school community to work tirelessly, side by side to maximize student academic and social growth.

Adobe Bluffs first opened its doors in 1992 and remained one of the smallest elementary schools in Poway Unified School District until 2002. Over the next few years the enrollment increased and by 2006 there were more than 800 students. In 2008, due to the opening of two new schools in our community, our enrollment decreased to 460. We have maintained our small size and in 2023 we were 552 students strong. We now have 600 students many who are new to our school utilizing the intra/inter district permit.

An important goal of the Adobe Bluffs community is to be a welcoming school for all students and families. We consider ourselves a small school with a big heart. By focusing on traits of character such as caring, respect, trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness and citizenship, our staff, students and parents have implemented strategies to support students academic, social and emotional achievement.

In addition, to prepare our students to be globally ready and to be culturally competent, we have launched the Global Language for Elementary Students (GLES) in Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture offering it from TK-5th grade.  We have elevated our foreign language component by starting the first Mandarin Chinese Two Way Dual Language Immersion Program starting from Kindergarten and will eventually have a pathway to middle and high schools. The two way Mandarin Dual Language Immersion program are the first of its kind in San Diego County due to our diverse community in our community.

Adobe Bluffs Elementary School is known for creating a caring, collaborative learning environment that emphasizes
student and family engagement as integral components to expanding opportunities for our students to gain local,
national, and global access. Real life project-based experiences, such as Lego League, Voyager Program, Multi-Language and culture for Elementary School Students, and Mandarin Immersion Programs have all been developed to ensure that our students are well prepared world-class learners and citizens. Our professional learning community includes our parents, who are partners in education. Our parent teacher association designs the focus of our learning for our monthly Coffee with the Principal so that the topics are directly relevant to the needs of our school.

Adobe Bluffs was recognized as a 2020 National Blue Ribbon School from the U.S. State Department of Education and continues to celebrate our many awards in innovation and acceleration. In 2022, our school was honored as a California Pivotal Practice School, and we earned the honor of being named a National PTA School of Excellence 2021-2023. In 2023, we became a No Place for Hate School and a Unified Champions School. We also worked collaboratively to earn schoolwide digital citizenship.

Our Adobe Bluffs culture is firmly established, as staff, students and parents work side by side to maximize student
academic and social emotional growth. Students are valued as unique individuals by our playground supervisors to the office staff and instructional assistants, who care about them and share a collective responsibility for each child’s
success. We practice and highlight character education. Our student population is made up of 32% Asian, 25% white, and 11% Latino, with 11% socioeconomically disadvantaged, 12% English Learners, and 15% students with disabilities.

We believe in inclusion and our students with disabilities are integrated into mainstream classes. We share experiences and promote inclusion and diversity at our annual Ability Appreciation. We ensure that our guests and staff are as diverse as our students and represent bilingual and trilingual academic excellence, so that our students see models of what it means to be a critical thinker and scholar. Parents are involved in school operations, like our drop off circle, as well as instruction, including our arts and science program and even our socio-emotional physical education club. We engage students and provide opportunities for children to realize their potential as explorers, engineers, investigators, musicians, actors, authors, and scientists. Adobe Bluffs is centered on building friendship and academic excellence for all!