Blackburn Elementary

Set in Newton, North Carolina, Blackburn Elementary is a moderately sized elementary school, one of the schools within Catawba County Schools. It instructs 484 students across grades K through 6.

Within Catawba County Schools, which oversees 28 schools and 16,003 students, Blackburn Elementary is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Blackburn Elementary shows that White students make up the majority at 57%. The remainder comes out to 17% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 8% multiracial, 5% Black. The wider county runs roughly 75% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Blackburn Elementary reports 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.3:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. Roughly 99% of students at Blackburn Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Catawba County runs at roughly 86%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Blackburn Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 48.6% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 63.1%.

In the surrounding community, Catawba County reports that median household earnings sit near $67,864, roughly 26% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Across Catawba County's 44 public schools (combined enrollment of about 22,392 students), Blackburn Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Jacobs Fork Middle is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.2 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 4 other public schools cluster around Blackburn Elementary. On composite proficiency, Blackburn Elementary comes 3rd of 9 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 62.2%.

The school occupies a low-density site.

Five-year trend. Blackburn Elementary's enrollment has fell 24% since 2018, when it stood at 636 (now 484). Over the same period, the White share ticked down from 65% to 57%.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Blackburn Elementary typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.