Bell Fork Elementary

As a medium-sized elementary-level community in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Bell Fork Elementary enrolls 551 students from grades K through 5, run under Onslow County Schools.

Within Onslow County Schools, which oversees 39 schools and 27,397 students, Bell Fork Elementary is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Bell Fork Elementary lists that the largest single group is Black at 40%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder is composed of 25% Hispanic, 25% White, 10% multiracial. By comparison, Onslow County as a whole is about 12% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, Bell Fork Elementary has 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 74% of students at Bell Fork Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Onslow County (around 51%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Bell Fork Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 56.2%, the actual is 48.2%, a residual of -8.0 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Onslow County) records that median household income runs about $68,148, about 26% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Bell Fork Elementary is one of 42 public schools in Onslow County (combined enrollment of about 27,501 students).

Clyde Erwin Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Bell Fork Elementary ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, below the local average of 48.7%.

Geographically, the school is in a city-core area.

Looking at the recent track record. Bell Fork Elementary's enrollment has contracted 15% since 2018, when it stood at 652 (now 551). Over the same period, the Hispanic share rose from 17% to 25%. Class-load math has pulled in: from 16.7:1 in 2018 to 14.5:1 in 2025.

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