The city of Mesa is located 15 miles east from Phoenix and is Arizona's third largest city. The Mesa Public Schools has approximately 74,000 students enrolled for the current year, 2007-2008. The majority of these students are from the city of Mesa, but the district also serves areas of the cities of Gilbert, Tempe and Chandler, as well as county areas and two Native American communities. Therefore, while the city encompasses approximately 124 square miles, the school district encompasses 200 square miles. The population served by the city is approximately 460,155 compared to an estimated school district population of 472,292 serving approximately 193,277 households.

The Mesa district represents a middle class population in an urban/suburban setting with a small rural farming area in the northern most sections of the district. Students from the Salt River and Fort McDowell Native American communities also attend Mesa Public Schools. The median household is $49,938 and 29 percent or more of the adults are college graduates (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The percent of students living in non-two parent households is approximately 21.5 percent and the percent of students receiving free and reduced lunches is 51.2 percent.

The school district is committed to excellence in learning for all of its schools. These include 87 schools, including 58 elementary schools, 13 junior high schools, seven high schools, nine focus schools, and a number of programs addressing students with special needs such as: Career and Technical Education which serves approximately 9,457 students, Special Education which serves approximately 7,304 students, Gifted/Extended Learning which serves approximately 11,073 students, and "English as a Second Language" which serves approximately 11,500 students. The wide variety of focus programs are offered throughout the district such as Back to Basic schools, an arts based school and a vocational high school that serves the whole East Valley.

The ethnic majority in the school district is Anglo-white which constitutes 51.5 percent of the school population. Students with Spanish surnames constitute the major ethnic minority group with 37.7 percent, and the second largest minority group is Native American or Alaskan Native with 4.1 percent. Black students comprise approximately 4.3 percent of the school population and Pacific Islander/Asian students approximately 2.4 percent.