Glen Alpine Elementary

Glen Alpine Elementary operates as a cozy elementary school in Morganton, North Carolina, overseen by Burke County Schools. Current enrollment sits at 295 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 37% smaller than the state mean of about 467.

Burke County Schools comprises 26 schools with combined enrollment of 11,667 students; Glen Alpine Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, Glen Alpine Elementary reports that White students make up the majority at 61%. Beyond that, the school reports 17% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 7% Asian, 5% Black. By comparison, Burke County as a whole is about 81% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.2:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 14.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 99% of students at Glen Alpine Elementary qualify 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), Glen Alpine Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 48.6%, the actual is 61.4%, a residual of +12.8 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Burke County shows the typical household earns roughly $58,592 per year, roughly 21% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Burke County runs 30 public schools (combined enrollment of about 12,360 students), of which Glen Alpine Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is W A Young Elementary, roughly 0.9 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Glen Alpine Elementary at 2nd of 8; the average score across the group is 48.4%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 31%: 425 students in 2018 compared to 295 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share climbed from 7% to 17%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 16.1:1 in 2018 to 13.2:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Glen Alpine Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.