Hillandale Elementary

Hillandale Elementary, a mid-sized elementary school in Durham, North Carolina, operated by Durham Public Schools, works with 586 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, North Carolina's public schools average about 467 students each, so Hillandale Elementary sits 25% bigger than that benchmark.

Durham Public Schools comprises 55 schools with combined enrollment of 31,797 students; Hillandale Elementary is among them.

On demographics, Hillandale Elementary reports that the most-represented group is Hispanic (40%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder is composed of 32% Black, 17% White, 8% multiracial, 4% Asian. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 16%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 40 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.8:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 14.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 99% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Hillandale Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 48.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 35.9%.

Zooming out to the county, Durham County reports that median household earnings sit near $82,316, 55% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. In all, Durham County runs 74 public schools (combined enrollment of about 46,109 students), of which Hillandale Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Riverside High, roughly 1.3 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Hillandale Elementary ranks 4th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 50.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a city-core area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Hillandale Elementary has shrank 9%, going from 643 students in 2018 to 586 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share grew from 27% to 40%.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Hillandale Elementary typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.