Cardinal Charter Academy

Cardinal Charter Academy, a moderately sized elementary-level community in Cary, North Carolina, operated by Cardinal Charter, teaches 584 students, covering grades K through 8. That puts it 25% above the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 467 students.

Cardinal Charter is the operating authority for Cardinal Charter Academy, handling staffing, calendars, and reporting to the state department of education.

On demographics, Cardinal Charter Academy lists that 34% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school logs 26% White, 21% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 7% multiracial. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 19%.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 13 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 45.2:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. About 47% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

In the area at large, census data for Wake County shows the typical household earns roughly $105,768 per year, 57% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Cardinal Charter Academy is one of 237 public schools in Wake County (combined enrollment of about 184,790 students).

Nearest neighbor: Kingswood Elementary, around 0.6 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Cardinal Charter Academy.

Cardinal Charter Academy operates from a metropolitan location. As a public charter, Cardinal Charter Academy runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Cardinal Charter Academy has fell 40%, going from 976 students in 2018 to 584 in 2025. The White share of enrollment shrank from 46% to 26% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 19.1:1 in 2018 to 45.2:1 in 2025.

On allk12, members of the Cardinal Charter Academy community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.