Gaston STEM Leadership Academy

Located at 400 Broughton Street, in Gaston, North Carolina, Gaston STEM Leadership Academy is a small elementary campus that enrolls 284 students (grades pre-K through 8), operated by Northampton County Schools. By comparison, North Carolina's public schools average about 467 students each, so Gaston STEM Leadership Academy sits 39% leaner than that benchmark.

Across the 6 schools in Northampton County Schools (1,251 students total), Gaston STEM Leadership Academy accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On the student-mix side, Gaston STEM Leadership Academy records that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (87%). Beyond that, the school lists 5% White, 4% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 55% Black, putting the school's mix noticeably more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.8:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.9:1 average. An estimated 99% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Gaston STEM Leadership Academy performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.6%, the actual is 43.5%, a residual of -5.2 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Northampton County put the typical household earns roughly $50,086 per year, 18% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 16%. Gaston STEM Leadership Academy is one of 6 public schools in Northampton County (combined enrollment of about 2,246 students).

Northampton County High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 7 other public schools cluster around Gaston STEM Leadership Academy. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Gaston STEM Leadership Academy at 6th of 8; the average score across the group is 47.5%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Gaston STEM Leadership Academy has climbed 3%, going from 276 students in 2018 to 284 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share ticked down from 92% to 87%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 13.4:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Gaston STEM Leadership Academy typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.