Buckland Elementary

Located at 448 NC 37 North, in Gates, North Carolina, Buckland Elementary is a low-enrollment elementary school that caters to 220 students (grades K through 5), overseen by Gates County Schools. Enrollment runs roughly 53% smaller than the state mean of about 467.

Gates County Schools comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 1,410 students; Buckland Elementary is among them.

Demographically, Buckland Elementary logs that 66% of the student body identifies as White; the rest consists of 22% Black, 7% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the resource side, The school reports having 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.2:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 51% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Buckland Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 63.3%, the actual is 50.0%, a residual of -13.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Gates County indicate the typical household earns roughly $66,333 per year, 11% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Gates County runs 5 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,410 students), of which Buckland Elementary is one.

Central Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.9 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Buckland Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 52.6%.

Buckland Elementary operates from a rural location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Buckland Elementary has ticked down 9%, going from 242 students in 2018 to 220 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment ticked down from 28% to 22% over that span. Class-load math has grew: from 13.4:1 in 2018 to 15.2:1 in 2025.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.